Once a Red Always a Red
by Pengping
Summary: Sequel to 'Rise of the Red Hunters.' The Red Hunters guild get dirty looks from the Beta symbol they wear, but no one says anything. Who wants fight a guild that specializes in killing players? The Red Players. After a Red Player is taken hostage the Hunters find themselves in open war against the Laughing Coffin, the new PK guild, and in war there are always casualties...
1. The Sky Serpent

One of the players of Sword Art Online raised her saber behind her ear and held the position, feeling the Sword Skill charge. Once it was she let it explode as she spun her blade around. She was just one of a large group of Clearers currently fighting the Floor 49 Boss: The Sky Serpent. Floor 49 was Aztec themed with thick jungles, giant stone buildings, and ziggurats. It should have been little surprise that the Boss for it was based on the Quetzalcoatl from Aztec myth.

Lyra ducked under one of the giant green serpent's wings and slashed at it with her saber in an eight-part combo. The Boss's HP dropped from two bars to one. She grinned as she darted back and switched out with Jan, one of her Guild members. They were almost done. Once they conquered this boss then they were half-way to freedom.

Technically, Lyra and her Guild called The Red Hunters hunted red players, those whose cursors were orange from killing other players. In this death game, that was murder. When a Boss Lair was discovered though, they put their hunting aside to help defeat it and further the human frontier.

Jan ducked out after a hit to let Asuna and some of her Knights of Blood strike. The boss screeched and unfurled its wings. They were birdlike wings covered in feathers. Most were lavender and some had a red tip to them. It flared a crown-like crest of lavender feathers with a number of violet and red ones scattered in front and flapped the wings.

Asuna and her group were blown back, but lost only a negligible amount of HP as they crashed to the floor.

What was that? The boss's attack pattern was sonic screech, whipping its tail tipped with similar colored feathers to shower the enemy with deadly shards of light, or using the two swords it had had earlier. Nothing had to do with the wings other than using them to create a whirlwind.

The light from the roof of the room was slowly blotted out as it spread its wings. They were far bigger then they were before. It beat them again, forcing Lyra, Jan, and all of the other players present to drop down to avoid getting blown away. Then, impossibly, it beat them downward and lifted off the ground. All the players stared as it flew into the air. It flew around their heads and ended up clinging upside down to the roof of the room.

"H-how are we supposed to fight that now?" One of the players asked.

"This is impossible," Jan muttered. "None of the bosses can fly. It's not even fair because we can't."

"That coming from a kid trapped in a Virtual Reality world by a lunatic." Lyra snapped, "Fair really doesn't come into play."

Asuna walked up to Lyra, "It must have a weakness."

"Agreed," Lyra nodded, "Question is, _how do we get to it_?"

The Sky Serpent let out a roar. Its head was more like a scaled muzzle with a really long snake tongue. It was way out of reach of Sword Skills.

"A Sword Style?" Asuna asked.

Lyra shook her head. "My Guild needs to be close to it for that to work."

"We might have to pull back," one of Lyra's new Red Hunters, a young girl with a spear named Alto, told them.

Neither Asuna nor Lyra were happy with that.

"What do you think Lyra?" Asuna addressed her.

Lyra sighed and stabbed the tip of her saber into the stone floor. "Right now, it's relying completely on its ability to stay out of our reach. If we can get up to it then we should stand a chance, but so long as we're on the ground…"

Asuna grimaced but seemed to agree. They needed to pull back and re-think their strategy. The frustrating thing was that this was their second attempt to defeat The Sky Serpent, and only the first time they had managed to drop its HP to one bar. They would have to start all over again.

"Its wings are charging!" someone shouted.

The two players looked up as the Sky Serpent's wings glowed.

"Behind shields!" Asuna ordered.

The players quickly scrambled to do so as the Serpent unleashed a wave of lavender-red energy. Those under shields escaped unharmed but a few players were a fraction too slow and were picked up and thrown across the room, slamming into the wall. Their HP bars dropped to yellow. One dropped to a low red, almost disappearing altogether. Another player went to the one in the red zone and used a healing crystal on him.

A swordsman in black raced over. "Asuna, we need to rethink this. Everyone's running low on healing crystals."

"Now Kirito?" Jan demanded. "It's lost nearly all its HP!"

The Shield-Barer that had sheltered Lyra and Asuna, a Red Hunter named Xavian, nodded agreement. He kept his shield up, eyeing the boss, mace in one hand. Like his guild mates he was in his uniform of red and black.

"I don't like retreating but we're taking a beating so until we learn how to fight this thing we need to go before someone gets killed." Kirito repeated.

Lyra hated running away from fights but in this game, death in here meant death in real life. "I agree."

Alto went to catch the twins, Raiku and Aden, two of the original members of the Red Hunters.

Jan glared at her and looked up at the boss. Then his gaze traveled away from it. That's, that's it! He ran away from his Commander with a shout of "Cover me! I've got an idea to bring it down!"

"What?" Lyra turned around to look at Jan as he brushed by her. Not only was he a member of her Guild, he was her Vice Commander. And he was being a fool yet again. "Jan! Get back here! We're pulling out!" She checked Jan's HP bar in the corner of her sight. It was in the yellow, almost red.

He ignored her as he ran towards The Sky Serpent. "I figured out why the room's different!"

Lyra looked at her friend in exasperation. She couldn't believe he hadn't learned his lesson from fighting the Level 48 Boss when only a pixel of his HP was left, but what did he mean about the room?  
It was a Boss Room and was circular like all the others. The only difference was that the roof of the room was flat instead of a dome and the pillars around the edges of it were closer together.

The Sky Serpent's tail started to glow and it flicked it, unleashing a rain of violet-red needles of energy. Lyra's saber lit up gold as a Sword Skill kicked in called Blade Dance. It was combo that could only be learned by sabers, and it had an unlimited number of moves. This time she used twelve moves. What it did was help her dance around the needles, slicing each one cleanly with her saber. It was useless in attacking but an invaluable defense against multiple projectile attacks. Once again, Blade Dance worked and she escaped unscratched.

Xavian ducked under his large shield again with Kirito. Asuna looked at Lyra enviously at her lack of injury. Calling them friends would not be the most accurate description.

The Sky Serpent was busy focusing on the group of warriors underneath it that Jan was able to get behind it. What he had noticed was that the Serpent was hovering near the top of the roof, right up against the pillars. He dropped his small shield so it wouldn't tangle him up and made sure he had a good grip on his longsword. His HP was too low to afford a serious hit, so he truly hoped that this worked.

When he neared one of the pillars he jumped up, his feet against the pillar, and he used his momentum to jump across to the pillar next to it, gaining some height. He repeated the move, the height he was gaining increasing until he was up to the roof where the Serpent was. He raised his longsword as he did one last jump and pushed off the pillar, flying in the air towards his enemy. The longsword glowed blue as the Sword Skill activated. Don't move!

The Sky Serpent obliged. Jan came down just behind the Boss's crest of feathers, sword in front of him, and the force behind the Skill thrust the sword into the enemy's head.

The Sky Serpent howled like a wolf and shook its head. Jan tightened his grip on the sword. A fall from this high was Game Over. He applied more pressure, pushing the sword deeper into the injury, twisting it. He could see the Boss's HP drop, nearing the yellow zone. It was steadily taking damage.

The Sky Serpent flipped over, front claws digging into the roof. Jan's death grip on his sword saved him but he was left hanging upside down. No! His weight was pulling the sword free.

"Son of a," Jan swore, reaching for his belt with one hand and grabbing a throwing needle. The throw was wild and his Needle Throw skill wasn't even at a hundred, but somehow it hit its target – one of the Boss's red cat eyes.

Its grip on the roof loosened and it rightened itself, HP dropping even more from the needle. Jan now had his feet on a solid surface of is scales. It thrashed in the air and Jan applied pressure to the sword. Suddenly it sank all the way to the hilt. The Sky Serpent's head snapped back and it fell from the roof. Its HP went to the red and then disappeared altogether. Midway to the ground, it exploded into blue shards as it died. Jan suddenly realized that he hadn't quite thought his plan through as he free fell.

Kirito jumped up onto a pillar and used it as leverage, grabbing Jan. They both crashed to the ground, HP plummeting to the red but the move had saved Jan. Jan's sword clattered to the ground away from him.

An announcement suddenly appeared saying "Level 49 Cleared!" The door to Level 50 creaked open. Screens appeared before every player detailing how much EXP and money they had won, listing dropped items. The players blinked in surprise and then collapsed to the floor in relief.

Another screen appeared in front of Jan, congratulating him on the Last Attack. As a prize for dealing the death blow it said he received a Sky Serpent Egg.

"Eh? An egg? That's it?" Jan glared at the screen. "Wonderful." He sat up slowly and dismissed the screen. "Oi, Kirito. Are you okay?"

Kirito nodded, and reached into his pouch, drawing a pink healing crystal. He held it close to himself and commanded "Heal!" It shattered and his HP returned to the green. "That was an interesting move."

Jan smiled and decided he could use a crystal to. His pouch though, was empty. "Wow, I'm just not winning. First a lame prize and now this."

"Jan!" Lyra shouted as she stomped over to him, saber in hand.

"Now I'm dead." Jan muttered.

Kirito helped him to his feet and backed up. He would rather risk Asuna's wrath then Lyra's.

The twins stayed back. Jan looked desperately to Merrik, the other original member of the Guild, but Merrik wasn't even looking in this direction. The two newbies Alto and Xavian looked at him sympathetically but did nothing to help. Xavian had joined their guild after his old guild had ousted him when they learned he was a Beta. Alto's guild had been killed by a trap in the dungeon. The Red Hunters were comprised only of Betas.

"What were you thinking you idiot?" Lyra demanded. "Are you making this into a habit? You did the same thing with the 48 Boss." She put one hand on her hip, raising her saber towards Jan with the other. "Well Alex!?"

Asuna straightened. Jan glanced at her, and Lyra lowered her saber.

"Jan," she corrected herself quietly.

Jan and Lyra were Alex and Jennifer in real life and they lived across the street from each other. Both had been overjoyed when they realized that they were part of the 1,000 Beta Testers who got to try out Sword Art Online for a month before its release to the public. It was considered an unspoken rule not to mention the real world.

"Eh, Lyra-kun, he did defeat it," Aden offered. Despite a build built for speed, he fought with a broad-axe that he now put on his back.

His twin quickly shook his head as he put up his light-weight rapier – similar to Asuna's – back into its sheathe.

Lyra turned to glare at Aden, "and almost got himself killed. Again."

The other members who fought the Boss relaxed and tended the wounded. A few went through the door to Level 50, but most helped the wounded to their feet using heal or teleport crystals and dispersed. Bickering between Lyra and Jan was one of the few constants in SAO.

"Why do you do it? Do you like making the news that much or is it the Last Attack drops?" Lyra turned back to Jan.

"Second one," Jan admitted. "It's not like I got anything good. All I got was a necklace from Floor 48 and now a stupid egg. What am I supposed to do with it? Cook it? I was hoping for an item that let me fly."

"Jan…"

"What? That is the only Boss to date that could fly. Something like that would come in handy." Jan shrugged.

Merrik shook his head at the normality of his guild mate, replaced his two-handed broadsword on his back and picked up Jan's longsword. It was made with speed metal and compared to his sword, felt like air in his hands.

"Are we going up or down?" Raiku asked Lyra as Merrik tossed Jan back his sword. Jan caught it.

"Down," Lyra decided, "back to our headquarters. We'll check out the new floor tomorrow."


	2. Skye

The next morning, the Red Hunters guild were seated at a circular table in the dining room. Meat had been a drop for defeating Lizard Swordsman, an enemy from Level 49 and the guild had gathered enough of the A-rank drop for Raiku to make the meal. They silently scooped up the meaty soup into their spoons and ate.

No one talked as they ate. Food in Aincrad was mostly medieval style bread and light broths, so meat was considered more important then conversation. Raiku was an amazing cook in the Real World as well as the virtual one so he had been able to enhance the flavor of the soup with a series of herbs and spices, a dollop of honey, and diced vegetables the other guild members had bought. There was apple cider and milk to drink, along with cornbread, and hasselback sweet potatoes.

When everyone had made a sizable dent in their food they started chatting about the Floor 49 Boss, and the new floor. Sitting on the table was a copy of the player run newspaper. The title was ' _Red Hunter Slays Floor 49 Boss after a Short Flight to It_.'

"Man, I did not fly," Jan muttered when Merrik waved the newspaper in his face. "I just fell and the Boss just happened to stay still."

"Yeah and then you fell after you killed it," Aden said cheekily.

"I wasn't thinking it through okay," Jan admitted and swatted the newspaper out of Merrik's hand. "What's Floor 50 like Anyway?"

Raiku caught the newspaper before it landed in his food and set it next to his bowl before he spoke. "If it wasn't changed then it is volcano themed. Most of the floor is black rock and lava pools, and there's a mountain range surrounding the dungeon that you have to cross to enter. The town there is called Pompeii."

Lyra had cut her cornbread in half and been spreading butter on it, but now stopped and shot Raiku an exasperated look. "You named the town of a volcanic floor _Pompeii_?"

Raiku shrugged innocently, "Aden actually named that town."

Sitting on his left, his twin stopped taking a sip of apple cider and lowered the ceramic mug. "I couldn't resist. Oh come on, I bet you wouldn't have been able to either."

Merrik shook his head with a sigh, and stabbed several slices of the sweet potatoes with his fork. Aden gave a hmph, and took a quick sip of his cider. The sip was too quick and it sloshed and ran down his shirt. Alto coughed, and her cough sounded suspiciously like a laugh. Aden glared at her, but she took a sip of her milk and averted her eyes.

"Is that one of the levels you designed?" Jan asked Raiku over Aden's quiet grumbling.

Raiku nodded. In real life, Raiku and Aden were the nephews of Kayaba Akihiko. Kayaba had made the floating castle of Aincrad's 100th floor, but he had drawn on his nephews to fill in the other 99 floors. For their own protection none of the Red Hunters had breathed a word about the identity of the twin's family, or the fact that Raiku had Level One Administer Privileges.

"What monsters are there?" Alto asked.

Raiku thought about it. "Out in the plains there are skeleton soldiers with weapons are like you'd expect for a Roman soldier and gladiator. There are also Killed Lions who hunt alone, and Hellhounds that work in packs."

"So it's Roman as well as volcanic-themed," Lyra mused and ate another spoonful of her soup.

Raiku continued with a nod that Lyra was correct. "Close to the lave pools are Lava Golems, they have crazy defense and can throw fireballs. Magma Serpants are the rarest and strongest of all the monstes outside of the dungeon. They don't have a real weakness, but can drop S or SS rank goods."

Lyra thought about it. "Sounds interesting. Those are the main ones?"

"The ones Aden and I designed," Raiku nodded. "I don't know if uncle-um, Kayaba changed them. He changed all of the Dungeon Boss's and altered a lot of other stuff. It's hard to tell how much the "Death Game" program changed until we get there."

"Why wouldn't they be the same?" Aden turned to half-face his twin. "It's like you said only the dungeon maps and final boss have been changed. Uncle Kayaba hasn't altered anything else so far."

"You still think Kayaba cares about our lives?" Raiku demanded. "If he did care if we died then he would never have wrote the " _Death Game_ " subroutine that eliminated the Log Out button. He doesn't care if we live or die any more then he does the other players he trapped here."

Aden didn't respond and the bothers glared at each other. The twins parent's had died when they were young, so Kayabad had long been the only family they had. This couldn't be easy for them. It was hard to emphasize with Aden, but also hard to understand what he was going through since it wasn't their uncle who had wrote " _Death Game_ " subroutine.

The newbies Xavian and Alto watched the twins. They hadn't leaned they were the nephews of _the_ Kayaba Akihiko too long ago, and the fact was evidently still sinking in.

Lyra decided to change the subject before the twins pounced on each other. "What about that egg you won yesterday, Jan?"

Jan hmmed, and then flicked his right hand down. His menu appeared before him with a jingle. He looked through his inventory until he got to the egg and tapped it.

It materialized on the table. Another swipe closed the menu. The egg fit comfortably in his palm and was a milky white color, like some oversized pearl.

"It doesn't seem to do anything. It's not a cook item and not equipable. Seems like just something to sell. Then again, I never did read its description." He tapped the egg, bringing up its description.

"SS-Rank Rare Item. Gained only through Last Attack of Floor 49 The Sky Serpent. When The Sky Serpent was killed there remained no one to take care of-" Jan trailed off reading.

"Well," Lyra pushed when Jan quieted, "go on."

"When The Sky Serpent was killed there remained no one to take care of her egg. It falls to the player that killed the mother to raise its child. The Baby Sky Serpent will aid its master player in battles as a Tamed-Beast." Jan looked up.

"You get a Boss as a Tamed Beast!" Raiku tensed, the brewing argument with Aden already forgotten. "I didn't design that."

"There is an option for me to hatch it," Jan whispered.

"Well," Merrik pushed, "hatch it before Alto jumps out of her seat."

Alto blushed. Xavian managed to suppress his snicker with effort and earned a kick from Alto for it.

Jan hit "Hatch Now." A conformation screen appeared and he hit okay. Instantly the egg moved as if something inside were tapping. A crack appeared and slowly spread, the eggshell bulging outward as the baby pushed it. A piece of eggshell fell out and a small green muzzle poked through the gap, taking a breath.

The Red Hunters leaned forward like a group of wide-eyed school children. Tamed beasts were rare.

The muzzle disappeared and the crack lengthened. It rocked a little on the table and then the entire egg exploded outwards. Fragments of the shell went all over the table. The Baby Sky Serpent was curled on its side, and it raised its head curiously.

Blurrily, it opened its golden cat eyes. The baby was the size of a ferret with emerald green scales, and feathers colored amethyst and lavender. A few were tipped red as if they had been dipped in blood. Its three-toed limbs ended in curved ivory claws that scratched on the table when he stretched. Ivory fangs exposed themselves as it yawned widely.

A message appeared before Jan. "Congratulations Player Jan. The Baby Sky Serpent has chosen to remain with you as your Tamed Beast. Would you like to name your new Tamed Beast?"

A keyboard popped up, and Jan shifted the Tamed Beast to one hand so he could type in its new name. There was a confirmation box that popped up, and he hit okay to it. His new Tamed Beast churred softly, rubbing itself on his hand. It obviously liked its new name.

"What did you name it?" Aden asked first, also having forgotten about the argument.

"Skye," Jan told him.

The Red Hunters stared at him now.

Merrik clapped a hand over his eyes and leaned back in his chair. "You named your Sky Serpent, _Sky_? That's creative."

"S-k-y-e," Jan spelled out.

"Oh, that makes it better," Merrik sighed.

"Wait, it was called _The_ Baby Sky Serpent right?" Raiku interrupted everyone suddenly.

"Yeah," Jan said slowly.

"The, as in singular. As in the fact that it's the only one of its kind - like the dungeon bosses." Raiku clarified.

Jan grinned and scratched Skye under his chin. "Let's see what he can do."

He brought up the description of his Taemd Beast from his menu and read it aloud. "Skye is a unique Beast who has taken well to you. He likes to bathe in the sun, sleep in high places, and eats honey. His attacks are Blind Flash, Purify, and Scout (Passive)."

"What do those attacks do?" Lyra asked and twirled one of her bangs around a finger idly, "the Purify sounds like it could be especially useful."

Jan tapped on Blind Flash. "Skye can charge his feathers with power and unleash a blinding flash that temporarily stuns enemies."

Purify, _tap_. "Skye produces potent venom in his bite but his venom has healing properties. It can cure Paralysis or Poison, slightly raise HP, and temporarily buff his target's stats. Heh, a venom that helps, that's new."

"As for Scout, it seems Skye's scout skill is mastered. He's good at looking for monsters and other players and can tell the difference between players with green and orange cursors." Jan frowned. "Orange cursors? Don't player killers have orange cursors?"

"I bet." Lyra smiled, and leaned back to lounge in her chair like a contented cat. "It seems you've got a useful new ally."

Alto, sitting next to Jan, reached over to pet Skye. Xavian grabbed her hand when he saw the hungry look in Skye's eyes. Aden picked up on Xavian's action and snickered.

"Hey Jan, why don't you feed your pet before it eats your hand," Aden teased with a snicker.

Jane drew his eyebrows together in confusion, and then looked down. Skye was gnawing on his hand. If they had not been in a safezone he would have lost HP.

"Heh, heh," Jan laughed guiltily. "Hey Raiku, can I borrow some of your honey?"

* * *

 **More of a cute scene then anything, but there will be red players in the next. This just introduces Skye, and reintroduces the Red Hunters guild. Alto and Xavian are new members, and like the rest of the guild they're Beta Testers who can use Sword Styles.**

 **If you don't know what a Sword Style is then you haven't read the prequel to this story: _Rise of the Red Hunters_. It explains how the guild came to be, and also introduces the Red Player Casim. Casim will be in this story to, so if you haven't read the prequel please do so for your understanding.**


	3. Red

"Why aren't you coming with us?" Raiku asked Jan about an hour later.

Jan scratched Skye under the chin. His new pet was clinging to his shoulder, hiding in Jan's long sandy blond hair so only its glowing gold eyes visible.

"Why do you think brother?" Aden tssked at his brother and rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "He's got a baby hiding in his hair, and Level 50's the current front. It's too dangerous for it, right?"

Aden sat on the edge of one of the islands that covered the 24th floor, and he splashed his boots in the water. The group was still gathered on the Red Hunter's personal island, and the rest of the guild was scattered near Aden. Jan nodded agreement, and looked over the giant lake that covered Floor 24. It was one of the most beautiful floors in his opinion. This floor was mostly water with an innumerable amount of isles connected via floating bridges, and the sunsets and sunrises were the best.

As an addition plus, this floor had surprisingly few monsters. Panareze was the name of the town, but the Red Hunters had gotten enough money from beating floor bosses that they had bought their own island. A bridge connected Panareze to their island, and the town's safe zone had been extended to shield their island.

"Sure you want to go solo?" Merrik asked without turning from looking out over the water. "Floor 16's been having some reports of red players. We might want to go there instead and thin their numbers."

Jan knew exactly what Merrik was suggesting. "It's only Floor 16, and I'm level 58. I'm sure I can handle any reds lurking around there, and if I find a nest I'll shoot you guys a message so you can help me clear them out."

"You sure?" Merrik repeated.

"The others will need your help taking on the new Floor. I'll be fine. I promise I won't take on a nest of them without letting you lot know." Jan smiled.

Merrik was actually the first Red Hunter. His old Guild had been casualties of them and he loved giving them some payback. Even now he was obviously tempted to go and help Jan instead of his guild mates.

"Let us know if you find any of the Laughing Coffin," Lyra said simply, knowing better then to try and change Jan's mind once he made it up.

"Eh?" Aden frowned and stopped splashing in the water.

"A PK Guild," Raiku explained. "I suppose you'd call it a red guild. Their members have a black coffin tattoo on their right forearm."

"I knew that," Aden promised.

"Sure," Raiku muttered.

Jan nodded. "I'll keep my eyes out. Should be easy since I've got four now."

Skye chirped in response.

His Guild was in their crimson red uniforms with black highlights, a Beta symbol on their left breast signifying that all seven of them were Beta Tester's. In order to hide the fact that he was a Red Hunter, Jan was wearing plain blue and gray clothes. His shield was normally equipped with a red skin that had a black border and a black Beta symbol in the center, but was no longer equipped and now plain silver.

Any red players who saw him would think he was prey for them, and not their predator.

Aden stood up, and the guild walked across the bridge to Panareze. Once they reached the teleport gates, they split up. His guild told the gate to go to Pompeii while Jan asked to go to _Floor 16: Coral Forest_.

His sight turned blue as the teleport engaged and when it faded he found himself on the back of a giant turtle. Growing from the turtle's back was the mass of coral that was the city of this Floor. The turtle was near the sandy shoreline that led to a series of giant tropical islands. There were so many islands and it was a safe haven for red players, just as the Caribbean in the Real World had been sanctuary for had to hand it to the twins, they had an amazing imagination.

It would be suicide for a Red Plater to be in the town, so Jan left it and jumped form the coral to a black spire of rock jutting out from the sand. His feet slid on the sand covered surface, but he threw his arms out to his side and managed to recover after half a terrifying second. When he was sure he wasn't going to wipe out, he carefully walked down the spire of stone to the sandy shores of the nearest island.

This floor reminded Jan of the saltwater version of Floor 24, his home, and he chuckled at the odd comparison. Panareze was one of the most secure towns while this floor clearly was not. Reports of red players had come from the Blood Isle dungeons, and Jan figured that was as good a place to start his search.

The sand of the Blood Isles was red. According to the game it was from both the iron in the sand and how much blood had been spilled on it. This dungeon was full of Floor 16's monsters: boar, giant wasps, man-eating Venus flytraps like from _Mario_ , and jungle bandits.

He walked over to an NPC, a sailor sitting on a rock. The sailor looked up at him.

"Will you help me recover my love? I'll give you all my treasure if I can get her back." He asked.

A screen appeared, asking Jan if he wanted to accept the quest "The Missing Maiden." Jan said no and walked past the sailor. This quest was simple enough one. The bandits had kidnapped his girlfriend and you had to fight them to get her back. He had done it before, and he didn't need to be tied by the parameters of a quest now.

It was a popular Quest for the Blood Isle, and Jan had to admit it was a good place for Red Player to setup camp amid the thick jungle. If he wanted to catch them, he'd have to pretend he was just another innocent player hoping to gain EXP, so he drew his sword and steadied his shield on his left arm.

Skye warily poked out of Jan's hair, blinking at the palm trees and nest of vines and ferns that made up the forest. His feathers were fluffed up, and his wings half-open.

"Don't worry," Jan reassured his new pet. "I've done this one before. It's easy and one player going solo will make a nice bit of bait for any reds."

Skye chirped and hid in his hair again, making a clicking noise once.

Jan shook his head, wondering what Skye was so worried about. A loud buzzing noise answered his question as a giant red wasp appeared in front of him. It was as tall as he was, and its white eyes seemed to glow in the light that filtered through the canopy. The buzzing noise came from its massive clear wings that it beat, and a black stinger extended from its abdomen that dripped poison.

Jan rolled his eyes. He had forgotten that Skye's scout skill was maxed. Skye had seen it coming, and that was why he had hid in Jan's hair.

He raised his sword and shield, miffed at having forgotten about his new Tamed-Beast. Skye shot from his hair at that moment and wrapped its serpentine body around a nearby fine. His wings were flared and his feathers puffed.

Jan's sword glowed blue in a basic horizontal slash as he attacked the wasp. There was a thud as its stinger deflected off of his shield, but Jan was rewarded with the shriek form the wasp when his strike connected. Again Jan dodged and let his shield take the hit. The same move was repeated and the wasp's HP dropped to the yellow zone.

Jan could have already killed it but if any reds were watching he needed to look like a low-level player and not a Clearer, so he was stuck using basic moves.

Skye raised his wings and the feathers began glowing white. Jan glanced over just as a powerful pulse of light shot from Skye's wings like a flash grenade. There was another shriek from the wasp and it lowered its head, trying to see. Desperately, it rubbed its forearms against its eyes to try in vain to clear its sight. That would be another of Skye's abilities that Jan had forgotten he could do.

Jan jumped forward while the wasp shook its head and dispatched it in a four move combo. Its HP bar dropped to zero and it vanished in blue shards. A screen appeared in front of Jan with his victory results.

He waved it aside and glanced up to where Skye was still sitting on the branch. Skye had lowered his feathers finally, and relaxed its body. His gold cat eyes took in the scene, tail tip twitching back and forth contently.

"Skye," Jan called out to his dragon and gave a two-note whistle as he held out his right arm.

Skye looked at the extended arm, and after a few seconds analysis jumped off his perch and landed on the arm like a hawk would. He fluffed up his feathers at Jan and glared at him intently.

"I'm sorry I ignored your warning," Jan apologized. "I'll listen to you next time."

His apology seemed to mollify his pet, and he lowered his and climbed up Jan's arm. Once again it perched out of sight in his hair. Jan resumed his walk down the twisted path. After a few minutes of things being too quiet, Skye chirped a warning and clicked twice.

Two clicks? Jan fell into a fighting stance and sure enough a pair of Jungle Bandits materialized out of the brush. They looked like humans dressed in tattered clothing dyed green-grey with a bandana covering the lower half of their face. A grey-green cloak hung from their shoulders and the hood was pulled up to hide the rest of their face. In their hands were long, rusty, and yet sharp daggers.

Skye took a spot out of the crossfire just like before, and watched Jan deal with them. Jan did so with no injuries and one shattered. The second shattered a few seconds later, but not before their dagger raked Jan's arm.

Jan glanced at his HP bar, and sure enough a crossed bone symbol for "poisoned" appeared next to his HP bar. With a sigh he stabbed his sword into the ground and pulled a green antidote crystal from his pouch. His green HP bar flashed black, and 3% of the total HP vanished. Unless he healed it with a crystal, the poison would not go away. Everything on this floor used a poison of some sort, so that was why Jan had stocked up on antidote crystals.

He pulled out a green crystal, but Skye beat him to using it when he flew out of the branches and landed on Jan's shoulder. His pet bit him in the neck like a vampire would, and Jan's HP dropped a little more. Then Skye's antidote venom took effect, and his HP shot back up at the same time the poisoned symbol vanished.

Jan removed his sword from the ground with a chuckle and scratched Skye under the chin. "I have got to get used to you."

He continued on his walk, and after sometime more Skye chirped a warning and gave one click. Jan instantly fell into stance, but relaxed a few seconds later when no monster jumped out of the underbrush and tried to kill him.

"Okay," Jan whispered and looked around, lowering his sword to point to the ground. "That's weird."

Had Skye been mistaken? Skye scampered out of his hair and onto his right shoulder. He pointed towards the side of his path with his golden-scaled, wolf like muzzle.

Jan followed where Skye was pointing and squinted to try and see better. His eyes focused on what Skye had seen a second later, and it evolved into a giant plant stem about a foot and a half wide and eight feet tall. At the top of the plant was a giant, closed flowerbud.

Curiously, Jan switched his sword so it was held by the same arm his shield was on and he knelt to pick up a stone. He drew his arm back behind his ear and threw it. The stone whistled through the air and hit the plant stem. Since it was not an official weapon it could not lower the HP, but it still got the plant to move.

The flower bud tipped downwards and opened, revealing a giant set of fangs surrounded by white lily-like petals. It opened and closed its jaws, and trails of saliva flew from its teeth as it bobbed its head and turned this way and that to try and see who had attacked it. A red cursor for a monster appeared above the fangs, and vine-like roots rose out of the leafy floor covering, bobbing like a swarm of cobras looking for a kill.

If Jan had to guess, he'd say it was the man-eating flytrap. After a few seconds of not seeing a target, the plant closed its teeth and the petals folded up into a flowerbud again. The roots vanished and the plant resumed its previous near-invisible position. Once it stopped moving the red cursor above its head vanished.

Jan whistled in appreciation. There were not very many monsters that could camouflage their cursor. This thing might be stationary, but Jan was willing to guess that it was the most troublesome common monster here. Rather than deal with fighting it, Jan decided to take a detour around the man-eating plant.

No sooner had he stepped off the path and into the shadows then did Skye tense up. He hissed a warning, and clicked once. Just as before, Jan froze.

Jan's eyes fluttered to Skye. If a chirp was a warning for monsters, then what was a hiss a warning for? He lowered his sword to his thigh so the light wouldn't accidently reflect off of it and give him away, and waited.

He did not have to wait long. A human-shaped blob moved behind the camouflaged plant and suddenly screamed as one of the plant's roots grabbed him by the ankles and hoisted him into the air upside down, dragging him onto the path. The plant opened its fangs and its red cursor appeared. It had caught a player, and whoever they were dropped their dagger when the plant shook them.

Jan didn't think, only acted as the plant raised the player above its mouth and started to lower them inside to swallow them whole. One cut from a high-level sword art killed the monster. The player fell onto the ground as the plant shattered into blue shards, and they stayed there. Likely they were still in shock about almost being eaten and killed.

Jan lowered his sword from his striking position and shook his head. Of all the incompetent things to do in this game dropping your weapon had to be one of the top ones. He bent down and picked up the player's weapon for them. It was a Jungle Bandit's dagger – a common drop for this area.

The player he had rescued reluctantly sat up, still trembling slightly. It was one from the younger bracket of players, a boy likely not even thirteen. His straight shoulder-length black hair half-hid his eyes. Slowly the boy looked up to reveal he had equipped red contacts onto his irises.

It was not the eyes that Jan stared at, but the cursor above the boy's head. Jan instinctively hopped back and raised his sword in a strike position to kill. This boy's cursor was orange. He was a player killer.

* * *

 **Remember the hostage mentioned in the story summery? He appears, and he's no older then Silica.** **You're probably asking what a kid who's not even a teenager is doing with an organe PK cursor, and you'll see if you keep reading. That's all I got to say for the author's notes... so... yeah.. read on.**


	4. Captured

Red Player and Red Hunter stared at each other for several long seconds before Jan finally broke the silence and asked the pre-teen incredulously, "Why are you a red player?"

The boy tightened his grip and seemed to realize he had lost his dagger. Instead, he reached for some of the throwing picks he wore on his waist.

Jan raised his sword at the boy warningly. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The boy hesitated and then slowly lowered his hand to the leafy ground. Jan stared at him and then threw up his hands in surrender, making the boy flinch.

"This is wonderful," Jan exclaimed in exasperation. "I was hoping to find a nest of reds and I find a kid going loner. Lyra's got bad info if you're the red player threat on this floor."

The boy trembled at Lyra's name. Her name and the name of her Red Hunter guild had become infamous to P-Killers. One of the reasons for that was that Red Hunters didn't throw Player Killers they caught in Black Iron Castle's prison. They killed them. Because they only killed player killers their green cursors never turned orange, but the symbol of their guild had the number of Red Players they had killed. There was the number 72 on Jan's guild symbol.

"You're a Red Hunter," Kobi whispered, hands shaking from terror.

"Jan," Jan muttered.

"Kobi," the boy said.

"I didn't ask for your name kid," Jan snapped at Kobi.

He moved the sleeve of the boy's right arm up with his sword tip. There on the arm was a black coffin tattoo with a wide smile and a bone arm. Not only was this boy a Player Killer he was one of the Laughing Coffin guild he had heard of. Jan was now interested.

"A Laughing Coffin, eh?" He mused. "Where's the rest of your guild boy?"

Kobi said nothing, but looked away. His trembling worsened.

He probably thought Jan was going to kill him. Although Jan had killed over twenty red players he wasn't eager to add such a young child to his tally. If he had been older then Jan wouldn't have hesitated, but as it was he wasn't sure. Why did he have to catch a child on his hunt?

"Speak up," Jan repeated with a clear order in his voice.

Kobi shook his head no. "They-they'll kill me if I tell."

"And if you don't I kill you," Jan promised, although he still wasn't sure if he was bluffing or not. "At the moment, I think I'm the more pressing danger."

He raised the boy's head up with his sword. His sword's tip was under Kobi's chin. Kobi clenched his hands, eyes closed.

"Bring up your menu," Jan ordered and lowering his sword.

"What?" Kobi asked incredulously.

"Flick your hand and open your menu." Jan repeated and tapped his blade against the boy's right arm.

Kobi really didn't want to, but flicked his hand downward anyway. Jan knelt by the boy and looked at his information. It wasn't the most courteous action, but Jan really didn't care since he was just dealing with a red player. There were no crystals in his inventory, and his level was only 15.

The low-level caught Jan off guard. "What in the…? Your level is lower than the floor?"

Kobi looked down again, this time in embarrassment. "All-all of the Laughing Coffin cadets are sent here. We're not given any crystals. The senior members expect us to last four days alone. Any supplies we need, we take from other players. They expect our kill number to increase."

Jan looked at Kobi's menu again and saw the number two in red underneath his level. Even one kill was enough to paint your cursor orange, and it seemed the child had killed twice. He sighed. Player Killer or not, Jan still felt responsible for him.

"This floor is too high for you," Jan grumbled. "That flytrap almost ate you. Tell me where your guild's base is and I'll give you a teleport crystal. You can go to whatever Floor you want. For starters, how many others are here with you."

He hated letting even one red escape alive to kill another day, but letting this boy live in exchange for the Laughing Coffin's base was worth it.

"There aren't any here but me," Kobi whispered.

Jan was glad that the boy was sane enough to start speaking to him, and opened a trade window between himself and the red player.

"All right red," Jan sighed. "Give me all your weapons, including those picks you're wearing.

Kobi looked up at him in horror, but realized that Jan was being serious. His hand was still trembling as he unequipped his weapons and hit select all. He hesitated until Jan tapped his sword on Kobi's leg as a silent prompt. Kobi hit trade and his inventor cleared out. All that gone for one col, the minimum amount needed in a trade. Now he was in even more trouble.

"There," Jan said satisfactorily and added the dagger Kobi had originally dropped into his menu and closed it. "Now tell me red, where are the rest of your guild? Give me a floor and a section."

When Kobi hesitated in his answer, Jan raised his sword and sliced one of Kobi's cheeks. Kobi's HP, already low, dropped to the yellow zone.

"24!" He shouted. "There're in the Labyrinth Dungeon."

Jan quieted and lowered his sword tip to the ground next to Kobi. He was so stunned he almost dropped his sword in shock, and he stared at Kobi.

"Floor 24," he whispered, "No way."

Floor 24 was his guild's headquarters, and the closest thing he had to a home. The most infamous Player Killer guild was hiding on the Red Hunter's floor? Jan might have accused Kobi of lying if the boy hadn't looked like he was going to cry. He needed to tell Lyra about this and they needed to do a sweep of the Labyrinth to see if his story was true. If it was true then they needed to root out the nest, and fast.

Jan wasn't in the mood to waste any more time, so he reached into his pouch and extracted a blue teleport crystal. He knelt in front of Kobi again and held out the crystal. Kobi looked at the crystal, but didn't seem to comprehend what was going on.

"A deal's a deal," Jan sad. "You told me, so you can make yourself scarce."

Kobi looked at the crystal, and then closed his menu and looked away with a fierce shake of his head.

"Wow," Jan sighed and sharpened his tone of voice. "Double the idiot, would you just take it kid?"

Using that tone of voice had made Kobi comply before, but it didn't work now. Kobi shook his head, and when Jan tried to push the crystal Kobi cringed back.

"No!" He shouted and knocked the crystal out of Jan's hand.

It clattered to the ground near them, and Jan was left to stare after the crystal. He was not expected that, and slowly turned back to the boy. Now Kobi was crying.

"I-I can't," Kobi nearly shouted. "If I did go back with what I just told you then they'd kill me! I went with them because my brother did! I didn't know who else to go with but him."

"Your brother," Jan asked and leaned back in surprise, caught off guard yet again.

"Please just kill me," Kobi whispered and hung his head. "Kill me or the other reds will, and they'll take their time. You feel hunger and tired in this game, and I've seen what even that can do to a player. Just kill me, make it fast. The other reds won't tolerate a traitor."

He closed his eyes and turned his head away, cringing. Obviously, he was waiting for Jan to swing. Jan sat there awkwardly. Now what was he supposed to do?

It was then that Skye poked his head out of Jan's hair and crawled down his arm to get a better look at Kobi. Skye cooed hello to Kobi. Kobi looked at Jan's Tamed-Beast in wonder. He tilted his head to one side, and Skye copied the movement. Skye wrapped his tail around Jan's arm securely and then hung ully upside down and mewed playfully like a kitten. The childish movement made Kobi smile slightly and bite back a sob.

Jan instantly felt guilty that he had thought about killing Kobi because he realized he had forgotten the simple fact of Sword Art Online. This was a game, but you didn't play it. You survived it, and it was only natural that Kobi would stay with his brother. Only his brother, whoever he was, had turned him into a killer.

He sighed deeply and looked up at the leaves overhead with a mutter of, "Lyra's gonna kill me for this."

Kobi gave him a confused look, and Jan shook the arm Skye was hanging from. Skye almost fell off. The beast squeaked and tightened his hold on Jan's arm. He glared at Jan upside down and scampered back onto Jan's shoulder with a huff.

"Come on," Jan ordered Kobi. "You're going to get to see the Red Hunter's base."

Kobi didn't move when Jan retrieved the teleport crystal Kobi had forsaken, and Jan narrowed his eyes. "I said come on, so stand up."

Slowly, unsurely, Kobi stood. Jan shoved the crystal into the Kobi's hand and opened his own menu. He scrolled through the items and equipped the clothing set marked 'Uniform.' His old clothes disappeared and he was in his underwear, but a second later he was engulfed in blue light as his Red Hunter uniform appeared. When it faded he was in long-sleeve crimson tunic, black trousers, black boots, and a black longcoat with a crimson gradient near the lower hem.

His plain gray blade became bright silver with crimson designs engraved on the metal like briar vines. The handguard became a pair of red feather wings highlighted with obsidian and silver. Its hilt glittered black, jeweled with a ruby beta symbol at the tip. The plain metal shield became red and black as it should and the Beta symbol flashed.

"You _are_ a Red Hunter," Kobi whispered, awestruck.

Jan sheathed his sword, and slung his shield over his shoulder. His plain brown scabbard was now black, and thorn briars had been inked on it in bright crimson color. Skye came out from Skye's hair and perched on his left shouder. The dragon's emerald greens nicely complimented Jan's red.

Jan tapped on the crystal in Kobi's hand and ordered briskly, "tell that crystal to go the town Panareze."

Kobi's eyes got huge again, and his breath hissed. "A-a town?"

Jan nodded, and put a hand on his hip. "I'm going to escort you back to our HQ. Consider it protective custody until Lyra and others come back. I'll let her decide what to do with you."

Kobi looked at the crystal, "Protective…"

"Unless you want to use that crystal and find another floor," Jan offered.

Kobi looked at the crystal in his hand and tightened his grip around it. Then he shook his head no.

"Let me shoot off a message to Lyra." Jan ordered him.

He tapped Lyra's name in his menu, and typed a message using the keyboard hovering in midair. After a few seconds he hit send.

"Teleport," he told the boy once the message sent and he raised his own crystal. "I'll be right behind you."

Kobi didn't want to, but it was either that, or go solo and hope that he could keep alive and stay away from the Red Hunters. Doing that would not only endanger him, but it would mean leaving his brother. He wished he had a weapon as he raised the crystal.

"Teleport: Panareze," he ordered the crystal.

Blue obscured his sight, and when it faded he opened his eyes and looked around. He was standing on a stone clearing. Green players could spend nights in towns, safe zones, where HP couldn't drop. For players like Kobi with an orange cursor, that didn't apply. Even in a safe zone, his HP could still drop.

For a moment no one noticed him, and Kobi looked around. He'd never been to Panareze before, and as he looked around the city he was distinctly reminded of Venice. It was beautiful, but of course someone realized he was a red player.

"What in the…?" The player whispered, and suddenly drew his sword as he called out warningly to those around him, "Red Player!"

Kobi whirled around when he heard the hiss of a sword leaving its scabbard and reached for a dagger that was no longer there. He swallowed and stepped back, fear lighting his eyes. Weapons were drawn by other players.

"Stop green!" Jan ordered loudly and strongly, projecting his voice so it echoed around the courtyard.

The players advancing towards Kobi stopped, and Kobi found himself sighing in relief when he realized that Jan was here. Like the Red Sea, the players parted to let Jan walk over. Jan approached the player who had first seen Kobi and called out to him calmly.

"This red is a prisoner of the Red Hunter guild and is under my protection," Jan informed the player. "He is unarmed. If you wish to harm him, you deal with me."

Jan put a hand over his head and partially drew the longsword from its scabbard. The player he was facing hesitated, but then lowered his sword. Kobi didn't understand immediately why no one was attacking Jan, but then realized why. No one wanted to take on a member of a guild that specialized in killing players. Around the courtyard blades were lowered, and Jan let go of his hilt.

"If you wish to, you may take it up with my leader when she returns," Jan informed the players around him.

He grabbed Kobi's sleeve and unceremoniously dragged him away until Kobi found his feet and started walking. Jan did not release Kobi's sleeve and Kobi didn't try to make him. Jan was scarier than his brother, and his brother was a red player with dozens of kills.

One of the players with a green cursor watched Kobi be escorted away, and he stepped out of the crowd and into an ally. His menu appeared with a chime, and he typed a message to PoH, his superior and leader of the Laughing Coffins. This player was one of the many moles who worked with Red Players, but didn't kill so their cursors stayed green and so they would not stand out from a normal player. It allowed him to work undercover as a spy and scout for the rest of the Laughing Coffin PK guild.

The message he sent was only one sentence: _The Red Hunters have captured one of us._

* * *

 **Ta da, here's the hostage situation. I feel sorry for Kobi though. His brother made him into a killer and now he has to deal with Jan who has become somewhat bloodthirsty of late. All of the Red Hunters have. They're killing just like the Red Players, even if they're doing it for the cause of stopping them from killing more innocents.**

 **Killing is still killing no matter which side you fight for, and killing so many is going to start affecting who they are.**


	5. Out of Style

Floor 50 was a maze of hardened lava rock and molten magma, and right now the rest of the Red Hunters were in the middle of the maze dealing with a pack of Dead Gladiators and Dead Soldiers. They were doing well enough, but were cautious as they learned the workings of this floor. Unexpectedly, the monsters disengaged and fled from the Red Hunters.

"Let them go," Lyra ordered Aden when he took a few steps to chase after them. "It could be a trap and we need to rest."

She checked her HP bar and the HP of her guild, noting that all of them were in the yellow and Raiku's was close to the red. Her guild relaxed their stance and dismissed any sword skills they had been charging.

"Why did they run like that?" Alto asked softly, looking after that.

"Isn't it obvious?" Aden smiled confidently, "we scared them off."

"That's not how the game is coded though," Raiku muttered. "Monsters don't have a sense of self-preservation, and attack until they're destroyed."

"Well they didn't this time," Xavian agreed with Aden.

Raiku didn't look convinced, but didn't say anything else.

"I hate skeletons," Merrik interrupted the silence before it became too dark. "Their bones give them a high defense and without their flesh slowing them down they're too fast."

"This is Level 50," Lyra reminded Merrik, "I would hardly expect it to be easy. We seem to be doing fine enough for now."

No sooner had the words left her lips then did the ground start shaking. The Red Hunters present held out their arms so they didn't fall and looked around, raising their weapons once more. Raiku frowned and fell into stance with his rapier. What was going on now?

One of the lava pools rippled, and the guild turned to face it as something began to rise out of it. Lava splattered everywhere suddenly as their new opponent surfaced and the Red Hunter Guild jumped back to try and avoid it. Some of their HP fell anyway when lava fell on them.

Rising out of the lava was a giant black serpent with red lava-like veins covering its body. Coils of it continued to appear, and the serpent was already as tall as a school bus. There was a bone skull over its head that looked very inhuman, and it had a third eye like a crimson orb above the other two. Hanging behind the frill of the skull were three fleshy black tendrils that ended in a bone spike. Rather than have a normal mouth it unfolded a set of arthropod-like mandibles with a set of shark like teeth set behind the skin, looking vaguely like a Predator's mandibles.

"I think I know why those weaker monsters ran away," Raiku said needlessly, "a Lava Snake."

"No kidding!" Aden shouted at his brother and let a sword skill charge.

The Lava Snake lowered its head down to the guild members beneath it, and clicked its mandibles together. None of the Red Hunters moved, and even Aden stayed his strike although the sword skill continued to charge. This thing was massive, probably equal to a lower-level floor boss. Three HP bars appeared over its head, surprising since only bosses were supposed to have multiple HP bars.

Everyone held their breath as they faced off against the massive creature, wondering what it was going to do. It answered the Red Hunters' question by closing its mandible jaws, and then suddenly spitting a glob of magma. The guild jumped back, scattering as the serpent gave a battle cry.

"Raiku!" Lyra shouted.

"It doesn't have a weakness!" Raiku shouted back before Lyra could ask.

In fact, Raiku wasn't even sure what it was goign to do. Its design was different, and the fleshy tentacle-like tendrils behind the skull mask shouldn't be there. What were they there for? Raiku seriously doubted it was just for decoration.

"Great," Lyra hissed and raised her saber.

"Let's see what it can do," Aden remarked arrogantly, glad for a challenge.

"Aden wait!" Raiku shouted as his brother leaped at the Lava Snake.

One of those tendrils Aden had been wary of moved suddenly and the bone spike that tipped it skewered Aden through his chest. Red pixels simulating blood fell like rain, and Aden's skill with his broad-axe missed. The Lava Snake moved the tendril and carelessly threw Aden to one side as it spit a series of flaming lava globs at the rest of the Red Hunters.

"Aden!" Raiku shouted again as Aden fell to the ground some distance away.

Raiku ran over to his brother, and one of the fleshy tendrils extended unnaturally like a whip towards him. Xavian got between the Lava Snake and Raiku, but the force behind the tendril's strike when it connected with his shield knocked him back. Alto dove sideways to block another, and Lyra raised her saber as she jumped aside. She braced the flat of her saber against her empty palm, and the tendril coming at her scratched against her blade's surface as she deflected it aside. The strength made her arms buckle and she barely managed to parry it.

"Low level boss nothing," she muttered, "this thing's a level 30 floor boss at least. Everyone! Crescent Style!"

Sword Styles were an upgraded version of Sword Skills that only Betas who had discovered the ability during the Beta Test could use. Few Beta testers knew about them as most of the Betas had preferred to fight solo or in small groups as they got the hang of the game throughout the month-long trial. Those who had discovered them during the Beta test were still able to use them, but they were the only ones.

Styles, as the Betas had dubbed them, allowed certain Sword Skills to overlap so multiple players could do the same Skill with different weapons at the same time. The overlap synchronized the attack so they didn't get in each other's way and raised the destructive capability. It multiplied the power by the number of people using it, and right now there were four using it. That meant each person became four times stronger than they would be if they were using a skill, so the overall power level of the Sword Style increased by 4 times 4. It was over-powered, and the Red Hunters specialty.

As Crescent Style activated, everybody except Raiku and Aden raised their weapons in various strike positions. Their weapons glowed the same color of lavender. Lyra shifted her stance to start the strike when the lavender aura suddenly vanished. She looked down at her saber, and then back up. The lavender color that signified the start of the Crescent Style for her other three guild mates had disappeared on their weapons as well.

Raiku looked at his guild mates as he used a heal crystal to boost Aden's HP out of the red zone in surprise. Their sword styles weren't working? How could they not be working? What was going on?

The serpent in the lava spat at them, and Lyra waved a hand for her guild to scatter again so it wouldn't have an easy target. Raiku wanted to flick his left hand down and open his Administrator menu, but knew that he couldn't do so out here in the open. If the players trapped in Aincrad realized he was Kayaba's family and one of the main designers of the game he'd likely be killed with Aden, and the rest of his guild might be as well.

Lyra activated Blade Dance sword skill to handle the projectiles as the Lava Snake resumed its attack, and the members of the Red Hunters started to step away from it. Aden, back on his feet, tried to activate a different Sword Style with Raiku but again the color faded and the Style shut down. Their Sword Styles made them unstoppable, but now they couldn't use them?

When Lyra saw that the twins were on their feet she tssked and called out reluctantly, "fall back!"

Her order surprised her guild as they had never needed to retreat before. When they hesitated Lyra viciously repeated her order before doing a back handspring to dodge one of the tendril's strikes. There was a chime from her menu that she had a message from someone, but Lyra barely noticed it.

"I said fall back!" She shouted harshly. "Now!"

Reluctantly, Alto lowered her staff and started to run back in the direction of Pompeii, followed shortly by Raiku dragging Aden and Xavian. Lyra nodded at Merrik to go while she distracted the Lava Snake. It was fast, Lyra would admit that as she danced between the fleshy tendrils that shot at her and tried to cut one in half. Her saber barely scratched it, stunning her again. Calling it equal to a Level 30 Floor Boss might not be getting it enough credit, Lyra thought somewhat crossly and started to run after her guild mates with her saber trailing behind her.

Of course it would be too simple if she simply managed to outrun it. There was a flash of movement out of the corner of her sight, and the Lava Snake whipped the tip of its tail over to her. It hit her soundly in the chest and threw her backwards into the air. Merrik and the rest of the guild were alerted to trouble by her shriek as the Lava Snake plucked her out of the air with its mouth and clamped down on her body.

"Son of a-," Merrik swore and he and the rest of the Red Hunters started to go back to help their leader.

"I said fall back!" Lyra shouted at them and raised her saber.

She held it in a reverse grip, and abruptly stabbed the Lava Snake in one of its eyes. Its jaws released her and it started to shriek and thrash around as Lyra yanked her saber free and fell to the ground. Lyra wasn't sure how she managed to land on her feet, but was grateful both that she did and that you couldn't feel pain inside the game.

With a flick of her hand at her guild to run, they managed to successfully fall back. They heard the Lava Snake roar at them, but it did not leave the lava and give chase. Instead, it sank back beneath the molten surface to nurse its new injury.

It was some time later before the Red Hunter guild stopped running and looked at each other in stunned surprise at what had just happened. Although they were one of the smallest guilds with only seven members, the maximum number in a party, they were very well known and very dangerous. Although they did not clear levels and only participated during fights against the Floor Boss, they killed red players who had the orange cursor of a criminal. Killing players was more difficult than killing monsters whose movements were pre-programmed by the game, especially since they had Raiku on their side. Normally, fighting monsters was the easy part.

"Would someone mind telling me what just happened?" Xavian demanded.

"Our Sword Style didn't activate," Raiku said softly, thinking aloud more than answering Xavian's question.

"Why wouldn't they work?" Aden repeated, trying to coax an answer from Raiku that wasn't so obvious.

"This is Floor 50, right?" Raiku asked seriously.

"Yes," Lyra answered as she sacrificed a heal crystal to boost her HP out of the red.

"It's the half-way point," Raiku exemplified. "Every 25 floors the game gets harder. Like how the bosses every 25 floors are so difficult, more so then any others. The game must have changed."

"Are you saying that because this is the 50th floor we can't use Sword Styles anymore?" Lyra asked and lowered her hand the crystal had been in as her HP rose up to green.

"Likely," Raiku sighed. "It won't just be for this floor either. From this Floor to 100, our Sword Styles are likely locked so we don't have an unfair advantage."

Things were silent around the guild members.

"I would understand if it blocked it for Boss Battles," Raiku shook his head, but the fact that we're being locked out simply for being on the floor when we're not even in the dungeon feels wrong. We should be able to use our Sword Styles all the way to Floor 100, even if we can't use them against the boss. That's how I programmed the Sword Styles. They can no longer be used against bosses Floor 70 and above, but I never made it so they would be locked when we're outside of a boss battle."

"Which means it's likely another feature of Kayaba's _Death Game_ subroutine that erased the Log Out button and made death real," Lyra finished Raikou's thought. "You can't alter it."

"Unless I can get access to as GM console," Raiku agreed sadly, "but if I did I would rather try to log everyone out."

The Sword Styles of the Beta-player guild Red Hunters were their signature, and something of a cheat code since it was so overpowered. It allowed their small guild to be just as devastating as the Knights of the Blood, and let them defeat Red Players and Floor Bosses with relative ease. Without their overwhelming and unfair power how were they going to handle Red Players and Floor Bosses, let alone maintain their status as the most powerful guild in Aincrad?

"It's likely that the lock applies only to Floors 50 and above," Alto said to try and help cheer up her teammates. "We can use them below Floor 50."

"But not Floor 50 and above," Merrik whispered. "Which means we can't use them against the Floor 50 boss in the Labyrinth dungeon, and we can't use them against Red Players who come up to the 50th floor."

"I thought we still had 20 more floors before we lost our Sword Styles," Raiku muttered. "When I checked out the changes the _Death Game_ subroutine implemented before it said we still had until Floor 70, and it only blocked Sword Styles in the fight against Floor Bosses, sort of like an anti-crystal zone. It was just like I designed."

"Are you saying that _Death Game_ was changed after it was activated?" Xavian spoke up and clenched his hand around the hilt of his mace.

"Kayaba's the one who wrote it though," Aden interrupted. "If the subroutine changed afterwards then it would have to be Kayaba who changed it!"

"Which means that Kayaba doesn't care if we live or die," Raiku snarled to his twin softly.

"No," Lyra corrected and stood straight as she realized a frightening possibility. "It means that Akihiko Kayaba saw how big of an advantage we had thanks to having both our Sword Styles and Raiku, so he shut them down earlier than they were supposed to be."

"That means then," Aden said, voice trailing off.

"Kayaba's in the game," Raiku finished his twin's thought. "There's no way he could access the server or its program outside thanks to the actions the Real World has taken, but he could alter it inside the game."

"Are you saying Kayaba's one of the players in Aincrad?" Merrik demanded.

"Yes," Raiku said seriously as the idea made more and more sense. "After all, what fun is it to _watch_ someone play a game? He's playing it with us."

"You guys haven't seen an avatar that looks like him though, no one has," Merrik tried to argue.

"He wrote the _Death Game_ program," Raiku reminded Merrik. "It would be simple for him to override some of the features, such as the fact the avatars look like the real appearance. His avatar probably doesn't match his true appearance."

"So we can't find out which player is really Kayaba, geez," Lyra sighed and tapped her blade against her scabbard in frustration.

She suddenly remembered the message she had gotten in the middle of the fight and used her right hand to open her menu and see what it was while the rest of her guild kept talking.

"There's no way to change his avatar to reflect his real appearance without access to a GM console," Raiku was saying while Lyra read the message. "All of the GM consoles for Floors 1-49 are gone, likely deleted when _Death Game_ activated. If there is one left within the programming of Sword Art Online I would be amazed. No console, no logging anyone out, revealing Kayaba, or unlocking our Sword Styles."

"Hey," Lyra interrupted and looked up, "I got a message from Jan during all that chaos. Read this."

She flicked the message screen and it flipped itself around so it faced away from her so her guild could read it. It read: _Found something interesting on Floor 16. Come home and bring everyone, LC HQ location found._

"LC HQ?" Aden asked and raised an eyebrow.

"Does he mean HQ as in headquarters?" Alto asked.

"And LC is Laughing Coffin if I were to guess," Lyra smiled. "We've got a target."

"Our Styles," Xavian interrupted gently.

"Are only locked on Floor 50 and above," Lyra chuckled. "Since Floor 50 just opened yesterday there's no way the LC's HQ is on it. That means they're on Floor 49 or below. We can use our Styles against them."

"Let's go then," Merrik said strongly, "glad that he had a chance to kill some more Red Players.

"Agreed," Lyra closed the message and her menu. "I've had all I can take of this floor for one day."

The rest of her guild happily agreed.

* * *

 **Yeah, the Sword Styles are overpowered. At this point their guild is the top guild, sort of like how the KoB are right before the game was beaten. That's because they are cleaning up the Red Players, and their OP Styles. Now the have a problem with their styles. Thank Kayaba again. What do you think of that Lava Snake? Not very friendly is it?**

 **When i mention Predator describing the snake, i mean the Predator alien from the _Predator_ and _Alien vs Predator_ franchise. **

**If you were worried about their Styles making them overpowered (which was exactly what was happening), what do you think now?**


	6. Trouble in Paradise

Lyra was relieved when she and the rest of her guild made it safely back to their base on the 24th floor. Raiku needed to use his Admin account to try and confirm the story about their Styles being sealed on Floor 50 and above, and everyone else wanted to relax after tangling with the Lava Snake. The group entered the base, and saw Jan sitting on a couch in the entry room with his boots on the sofa and his sword and shield unequipped.

"Took you guys long enough," Jan scolded them.

"We weren't in the mood to burn teleport crystals," Lyra sighed.

"Did something happen?" Jan asked, seeing how ragged the group were.

"Yes," Lyra muttered, "Floor 50 is full of surprises."

"Tell me about it later," Jan interrupted uncharacteristically. "I know where the Laughing Coffin are."

"We guessed as much from your message," Merrik said as he and the rest of the party unequipped their weapons.

"You guys won't believe where though," Jan warned.

"Where?" Lyra asked, not liking the seriousness in his voice.

"First," Jan changed the subject, again surprising his guild as they spread out and sat around the room near him. "The LC is using Floor 16 as a training ground for new members. They strip them of all crystals and abandon them there for a few days. When they come back the number of kills the player has is supposed to have increased."

"Figures," Raiku muttered. "We better put a raiding team together with some of the other Clearers and get rid of them."

"Yeah," Aden agreed. "Too bad Kirito won't help kill Reds."

"What about LC's headquarters?" Lyra interrupted the twins, wondering why Jan kept changing the subject.

"It's here," Jan said simply.

"Here?" Alto repeated.

"Here," Jan said again. "They're supposedly on Floor 24 in the Labyrinth."

It was silent for a long minute.

"No way," Xavian said first.

"The Reds have _their_ base on _our_ floor," Merrik cut Xavian off with a growl in his voice.

"So I heard," Jan sighed and looked down.

"Where did you get this information?" Lyra asked warily.

"I caught one of the trainees stranded on Floor 16," Jan shook his head. "Your age Alto, pre-teen."

"And what happened to the trainee?" Lyra crossed her arms over her chest with a feeling she might know where this was going.

"You have to promise not to overreact," Jan ordered his guild, "especially you Merrik."

"Me?" Merrik asked in surprise. "Why are you picking on me?"

"Because you enjoy killing Reds too much," Jan said bluntly.

Merrik leaned back, blushing slightly, and looked away as he crossed his arms over his chest. "So what? If we don't kill them they'll kill us."

While most of the guild either sighed, shook their head, or did something else along those lines Lyra watched Jan curiously. "Where's the Red you caught?"

"Behind me," Jan said, startling his guild.

"Eh?" The twins said at the same time.

Merrik narrowed his eyes and ran behind the couch. Sitting on the floor with Skye in his lap was a small black-haired boy with red eyes. He didn't have any weapons, and there was a tell-tell orange cursor above his head. The red yelped and scrambled to his feet.

Instinct made Merrik swing his sword he had not yet unequipped at the child, and Jan vaulted over the couch between them. The safe zone protection feature activated and a shield of energy materialized around him. Merrik's sword hit that with a colorful and explosive bang, but could do no damage.

"I said don't overreact Merrik," Jan repeated in exasperation.

The red had backed up and now stood with his back pressed up against the wall. Skye flew and landed on the back of the sofa near Jan and Merrik tssked, reluctantly lowering his blade. There was a yelp from behind Jan and he turned to see that Lyra had the tip of her saber raised to the red's chin. Jan didn't try to stop her. As leader of the guild, she would have final say in this.

"Explain," Lyra ordered Jan without looking away from the red, "now."

Jan cringed a little at her tone, realizing that she was very mad. "Like I said, this is the junior LC I found on Floor 16. He's the one who told me where their base is."

"Why is he _here_?" Lyra asked in a dangerously calm and level voice.

"I offered him a teleport crystal after he told me where his guild was, but he wouldn't take it." Jan explained slowly. "Even though I had my blade on him, he was more scared of getting caught by his buddies for snitching on them."

Lyra didn't lower her blade, and Jan had a feeling she was going to kill him.

"He didn't join Laughing Coffin because he wanted to," Jan added. "His older brother joined the guild, and in this game it's natural for family to stay with family."

The other Red Hunters were staying quiet respectfully, and Kobi realized in terror that if Lyra decided to kill him they wouldn't stop her. _I'll let her decide what to do with you_ , the words Jan had said to Kobi about Lyra. He hadn't been exaggerating. Whatever she decided the rest of the guild would follow.

Lyra apprised him to try to figure out what she should do. If she decided to kill him then he would be dead, and if it was a mistake it was one she could never undo. What if she decided to let him live and he turned out to be spy and assassin from the Laughing Coffin though? One of her people could be killed, and that couldn't be undone either.

"What's your name?" She asked the red suddenly in a sharp voice.

"K-Kobi," Kobi said as he tried to cringe away from the blade despite not having anywhere else to go.

Was she really going to kill him? Oh, he wished his brother was here. He'd fight them off. After all, he'd crossed blades with the Red Hunters before and lived to tell the tale, something very few red players could attest to.

Lyra looked at the fear-stricken gaze in Kobi's red eyes, and then sighed softly. She really hoped she wouldn't regret this as she lowered her saber from Kobi's throat. Merrik tensed in shock when she did that, and the other Red Hunters looked startled as well as she sheathed the blade into its scabbard with a click. Kobi realized he wasn't going to die yet, and slid down the wall to a heap, legs unable to support him anymore.

"L-Lyra," Merrik whispered. "You're going to let that red live?"

"For the moment," Lyra decided. "We need to confirm if the LC are really on this floor. If they're not and he's lying then we can ask him for the real answer."

Torture, Kobi realized without the word sinking in. She didn't want to kill him yet because he was a source of information, and the only red that the Red Hunters had. What would happen to him when Lyra found out that he wasn't lying? Would they see a need to keep him around? He hoped his brother would find him soon.

"Raiku," Lyra ordered, "lock down his messages so he can't contact his guild and make sure he can't leave the premises."

Raiku nodded conformation and knelt in front of Kobi. With a shooing motion he made Kobi open his screen and then used some of the hidden functions in the game that he knew about to remove the chat feature from his menu. It was probably the same technique Kayaba had done to remove the "Log Out" feature of the game, and that thought bothered Raiku a little bit. He would need to use his administer screen to alter the safe zone barrier around their island so that red players couldn't leave the premises, and there was no way he was opening that menu in front of a red player.

"Get him something to eat to," Lyra added when Kobi's stomach grumbled.

"I'll do that," Alto voiced up.

Raiku nodded and then went upstairs. It looked like he was going to get something and Kobi assumed that he was, but he was really just getting privacy so he could use his admin privileges in peace. Xavian and Merrik exchanged astonished looks and then stared at Lyra as if they couldn't believe what she had just done. Aden wasn't happy, but he knew better then to argue with Lyra and so went upstairs to see firsthand the results of Raiku's probing about their sword styles. Jan sent Skye to stay with Kobi and keep an eye on him, but did nothing more. He respected Lyra's decision.

"Lyra!" Merrik repeated loudly. "You're going to let him live?"

"For now," Lyra said coolly. "Having a red around might be useful as we are hunting reds. Besides, if the Laughing Coffin is on this floor then what better way is there to lure them out of hiding then with one of their own."

"Bait," Merrik grumbled. "You're going to use him as bait?"

"If it works then we'll lure out the Laughing Coffin guild so we can kill them," Lyra pointed out. "Instead of just killing one junior red, him, we might be able to wipe out most of his guild. Maybe the Prince of Hell will even come out himself, and we can eliminate the red problem at its source."

Xavian understood now. For now, Kobi really was more useful to them alive then dead. He supposed that, in a manner of speaking, taking Kobi prisoner was the Red Hunters way of declaring war on the Laughing Coffin. If they really could kill PoH, then this could change the dynamics of the entire game.

The reward was worth the risk.

* * *

Waves lapped against the shore of the Blood Isle on Floor 16, and a green player stumbled back in shock. They fell backwards and shattered into blue prisms before they even touched the ground, HP at zero. The red player who had killed them watched impassively, his weapon reflecting off the few stray beams of light that filtered through the dungeon's roof of trees.

The red player looked away without caring from the his latest victim, and the three metal claws that served as his main weapon slid backwards and locked onto the surface of the vambrace on his left arm. They were long weapons that went from his elbow to wrist, and slid out over his fingers like Wolverine's when he wanted them to. With the threat over, the red player turned and continued to walk through the dungeon.

His short hair was new-leaf green with crimson bangs framing his face. The orange cursor above his head bobbed as he walked, and he looked from right to left. He knew that Kobi was supposed to be on this floor somewhere, and this dungeon was prime hunting grounds. Surely, Kobi was in here.

A message dinged, and the red player opened it. It was another member of Laughing Coffin asking if he had found the newbies they had sent here. More specifically, it said: _Hurry up and find the newbies Cassim._

Cassim rolled his eyes at his teammate's impatience and replied that he just needed to find Kobi, and then they could head back to their base on the 24th floor. As he sent the response back, Cassim still found it singularly ironic that the PoH had made the Laughing Coffin's base be on the same floor as the Red Hunter's. It was the last place the Red Hunters would ever think to look, but was it a gamble. So far, it had been paying off.

Originally, Cassim had worked with other outlaw players and attacked solo or small group players like bandits. They gave up their items in exchange for their lives, but he had never killed anyone. No one ever killed anyone. That had changed on New Year's Eve of 2023 when a small guild was out partying outside of a town's safe zone.

PoH had gathered a group of about thirty players around him and slaughtered the entire guild. When word spread the first day of 2024 about the murders, everyone had been stunned. After that, Cassim and his group of people who had been acting like bandits holding up players had killed one or two. It had only spread, and eventually PoH had come to their guild. Interested in what he had said, Cassim had left with PoH.

Not long after that, he had been placed in charge of barricading Floor 1 "Town of Beginnings" and emphasizing the _tax_ as per PoH's orders. It had been his way of saying the red players were in charge of this game. His plan had gone fine until Lyra and the others who would form the Red Hunter guild attacked and killed everyone but Cassim. Lyra had let Cassim leave and tell PoH that this game was not his to rule. PoH had found their challenge to be quite amusing.

Since then, the number of members had only increased among both red players and Red Hunters, as had their mutual number of their kills. The Red Hunters had become more organized and acknowledged, sometimes bringing in larger guilds to help them root out nests of red players, and in turn helping the other players defeat Floor Bosses.

It was becoming extremely dangerous for red players to stay solo, and Cassim had agreed to formally join the Laughing Coffin. PoH had been pleased to have a beta player among them as most of the beta with him had been killed by the Red Hunters when they had broken the Siege of Floor 1. Now he was fetching back the new recruits, the black coffin tattoo of his guild on the back of his right hand, and he was starting to get annoyed with Kobi.

He checked Kobi's name in his friend list, but it wasn't greyed out, so he had to be alive. If he wasn't in a dungeon though then why couldn't he send a message? Something strange was going on, and Cassim was only a little surprised that his little brother was involved. Kobi hadn't wanted to join the Laughing Coffin initially, but Cassim had forced him to kill a player. Sometimes he wished he hadn't, but Cassim felt safest with his younger brother near him, and he couldn't stay near him if he didn't have a kill tally. PoH wouldn't allow those untested to stay within his guild.

"Kobi," Cassim sighed.

A message suddenly chimed, and Cassim's first thought was that it was his teammate whining about hurrying up again. It wasn't though, and it was a message from his guild leader, the Prince of Hell. Cassim stood at attention even though his leader wasn't here and tapped open the message. It was a short message.

 _We received a message from our spy on the 24_ _th_ _floor_ , PoH's message explained. _It said, "The Red Hunters have captured one of us."_

"No way," Cassim muttered. "Those idiots caught one of the Laughing Coffin?"

It was the next sentence in PoH's message that made Cassim choke up. _You are one of my most loyal Lieutenants, so I thought you should know first that the captured red is Kobi._

"Kobi?" Cassim whispered.

The Red Hunters had captured his little brother? That was why Kobi wasn't responding to his messages! He was a prisoner! Oh no, the Red Hunters killed reds without mercy. What would they do to Kobi for having an orange cursor?

Rapidly, Cassim looked at his friend list again, but Kobi's username wasn't greyed out. He was alive, but how long would he be? He was in the Red Hunter's custody. Cassim clenched his hand into a fist and looked down at the floor of the dungeon. This time, the Red Hunters had gone too far.

 _Tell me what to do,_ Cassim messaged his leader back and hit send.

The date was August 1st, 2024.

* * *

 **I'm sorry it took sooo long to update this, but here's the new chapter. The next chapter is going to be mostly from Cassim's POV with him speaking to PoH and things of the like. It's going to be interesting doing this from the POV of the reds as well as the red hunters. Does everyone remember Cassim? By the way, does anyone remember the importance of the date at the end of the chapter?**


	7. The Bonds of Family

Cassim half stalked into the lair of the 24th floor boss, and the Laughing Coffin members gathered within looked up at his entrance. There were less then there usually were. Using the lair of the defeated boss might seem odd, but with the boss defeated, it _was_ empty and it _was_ functioning as a safe zone to keep monsters out. Any players that came into the dungeon had no reason to go to the empty room of the boss lair so they weren't bothered here, and it was both large and well lit with blue torches thanks to the game design.

This particular dungeon was even larger than most as it had many platforms floating between the floor and roof which the floor boss, the Prince of Bones, had made good use of. His name still sounded like the title of a bad movie, and the other red players parted to let him pass unchallenged before he struck at them. Cassim directly approached PoH in his black hooded poncho as he sat on top of one of the tables the red players had brought in to turn the boss's room into a real HQ.

When Cassim was close enough to PoH he unlocked the claws on his left vambrace and they slid out over his hand. PoH heard the sound of the weapon unlocking and he turned his head just as Cassim was close enough. Cassim grabbed the front of PoH's poncho and slammed him onto the surface of the table without any warning, raising his claws so they were directly over the leader of the Laughing Coffin's face.

"Where is my brother?" Cassim demanded without lowering his blades from the Prince of Hell.

Cassim felt one of the other reds put their sword until his chin warningly, but he did not lower his weapon. This might be a safe zone from monsters, but reds would not have their HP protected. It could drop, or run out.

The PoH's hood fell back, revealing his slicked back black hair and face. There was a blue tattoo running down the right side of his face, and a silver piercing by his left eye. Silence had fallen in the boss lair, and the PoH held up a hand. The red player with his sword to Cassim's neck, the PoH's second in command Nevermore, slowly lowered his sword but did not step away. Nevermore was a little overprotective of his leader.

"Your brother has been captured by the Red Hunters," PoH said calmly, looking down the length of the three metal claws to Cassim. "Intel says he was last seen alive. Our base may be compromised though, so I have dispatched squads to explore the other floors and patrol."

Nevermore glanced sideways at the PoH's main weapon, Mate Chopper, sitting on the table just out of arms reach of its owner. He looked back to his captain for directions, but PoH was only looking calmly at Cassim. Cassim's left hand tightened into a fist, his right hand still holding a handful of PoH's poncho. For an instant it looked like Nevermore might have to save his captain, but then Cassim released PoH and stepped back with a tssk, not retracting his claws.

PoH sat back up, and nodded at Nevermore that it was alright for him to lower his scimitar. Nevermore was still reluctant to do so, but when Cassim stepped back everyone present seemed to take a calm breath. Cassim's claws reflected the light as he crossed his arms over his chest without retracting them or injuring themselves.

His vambrace, named Soulshard, was a weapon on par with Mate Chopper in sharpness and strength and currently unmatched by a player-crafted weapon, it being a Last Attack drop of a Floor boss as well. Its unique design of being mounted on his vambrace gave him a unique Sword Skill set as well as a few other abilities that made him a dangerous opponent and valuable asset to the Laughing Coffin. Although Cassim's beliefs were different from PoH's he had never been troubled by killing, ever. PoH had been thrilled when Cassim had joined him, and he didn't want to lose such a high level an asset lightly.

Without a word, Cassim retracted Soulshard's claws and turned on his heel. He started to walk from the room and the red players skittishly parted around him.

"Where are you going?" Nevermore demanded and clenched his teeth together.

"The Red Hunters are on this floor," Cassim tossed over his shoulder. "I'm getting my brother back."

There was a whistling sound behind him, and Mate Chopper suddenly flew past him and embedded itself into the edge of one of the levitating platforms he was walking by. Cassim stopped walking and glanced over his shoulder at PoH and at his arm still extended from the throw. PoH lowered his arm to the table he still sat on.

"No," he ordered Cassim. "You are not."

"Why not?" Cassim demanded.

"The Red Hunter's lair may be off the mainland, but it is still in a safe zone," PoH reminded him sharply in his machinegun-like voice. "They will have its protection, but you will not. Unless you can find another glitch in the game to exploit and find a way around the safe zone you will stay here."

"Why?" Cassim challenged PoH directly, the only one strong enough to do so and survive. "Is it because my brother isn't as useful an asset as me? That's he not worth it? You don't have any siblings in the real world, do you Prince of Hell?"

It became quiet again, and the red players looked between them skittishly. Cassim had found and exploited a glitch in the Sword Art Online system that was meant to ensure the player's had equal power, and it gave him an advantage. PoH could not use the glitch to his advantage.

Cassim remembered shortly after the Beta test when the finalized version of SAO had become available to ten thousand people. Because he was a Beta tester, his old Beta test avatar had been deleted and he had been given the finalized game. He had been able to ask them for another set of NerveGear and game cartridge, surprising Kobi with it.

 _Kobi had looked at the NerveGear brightly as he sat on his bed. "Is this really for me brother? How did you get one?"_

 _"I'm a beta tester," Cassim had teased Kobi, "it wasn't easy, but it wasn't hard. I got a copy of the game for you to."_

 _Cassim had held up a copy of the cartridge, and Kobi had nearly snatched it from his hand in excitement._

 _"The grand opening is tomorrow," Cassim had told Kobi. "You can set up the NerveGear today and then log in with me tomorrow."_

 _"Set it up?" Kobi had tilted his head curiously and looked down at his NerveGear sitting on the bed beside him. "I have to set it up?"_

 _"The first time you use it yes," Cassim agreed. "I have the same NerveGear so I don't have to, but you should set it up today. It'll save you time tomorrow."_

 _"That's why you won't let me borrow your NerveGear, right?" Kobi asked. "It's set up for you."_

 _"Every person's brain is unique and their nerves react differently," Cassim quoted what was in the NerveGear's instructions. "Because of this, NerveGear can only be set up for one person. If someone else tries to use it their game experience will be greatly reduced, and they may damage the NerveGear."_

 _Kobi had nodded in excitement, and Cassim had sighed, aware the Kobi wasn't really listening. He had had helped him set up the NerveGear, leaving the SAO game cartridge on his nightstand._

 _"It's too bad you don't have Soulshard," Kobi said once the connections were made to the NerveGear. "That was your favorite weapon."_

 _"It was," Cassim agreed. "Since it was the Last Attack drop from the Floor 10 boss, the highest level we managed to clear in the month, you could argue that it was the strongest weapon in the game. That was in the Beta test though, and it got deleted with my avatar. Well, I'm sure since it showed up in the Beta test it'll be in this version to. I'll just have to find it. Now put this on and lay down."_

 _Cassim had haphazardly put the NerveGear on Kobi's head, making his brother whine and fix it. With a motion from Cassim he laid down. Today he would set up the NerveGear, and tomorrow he would create a SAO account with Cassim and log in for the first time._

If Cassim had had any idea that he would never be able to log out again, then he never would have gotten Kobi his own set of NerveGear. Kobi wouldn't have been able to get the NerveGear on his own, so him being here was Cassim's fault. He tightened his left hand into a fist and Soulshard, who, due to a glitch in the game, had not been deleted from Cassim's Beta account, slid a few inches over his fingers before Cassim stopped it.

"Do you have a better idea to rescue my brother?" Cassim demanded, "Or do you intend to leave him to be killed by the Red Hunters? They've killed almost a hundred players already, red players, but players none the less. It's still murder and they don't hesitate. I doubt they'll stop now."

Cassim reached up with his right hand and tugged Mate Chopper free. He held it in his right hand while he raised his left arm where Soulshard was, holding two weapons at once. The game didn't call him out on it, and Cassim smiled when the players stepped back. Soulshard's existence was a glitch in the game, and it caused a secondary glitch - it wasn't registered as a weapon. This was because of its unique shape and the fact that although it had existed in the coding of the Beta SAO, it was not in the coding of the new SAO.

Two weapons and he could use two different Sword Skills at once. Rumor was there was a Unique Skill besides Holy Sword that was similar to this. It allowed one Sword Skill to be executed simultaneously with two blades. It was the only way, besides the glitch created by Soulshard, that a player could have two weapons equipped at the same time. Cassim couldn't do the same Sword Skill with both blades, but he could use two different ones at the same time. By staggering the timing of the two sword skills, he could eliminate the post-motion delay, so there was no window for a counterattack. In that regard, it was just as dangerous as a Unique Skill.

Soulshard had one advantage no other weapon had. The difficulty of new SAO had been dropped to accommodate the fact that everyone only had one life, but that was not the fact with Soulshard. It was from the Beta test when the game's difficulty had been much higher. Soulshard's power was higher to accommodate the more difficult beta test, a power level that was not in the new, and easier, SAO. After a moment, Cassim threw Mate Chopper back at PoH without activating a Skill and it embedded itself into the floor of the dungeon.

"You could have left him green," Cassim said quietly. "Instead of forcing Kobi to become a red player you could have left him as a green and used him as a spy to gather information, and walk through towns unnoticed. Yet you made him become a red even though he's better suited to be a green. That decision of yours wouldn't have had anything at all to do with keeping me under control and loyal to you, would it?"

PoH didn't answer, and the two stared off at each other. It was true that since Kobi's cursor was permanently painted orange of a criminal that he lacked protection a green had. No one would trust a red player, so in order to keep Kobi safe Cassim had to stay with the red players. If Kobi was green then he would be safe in a city, but that wasn't the case anymore. Although Cassim had guessed this some time ago, this was the first time he had called PoH out on it.

"Normally a glitch ruins the experience of a game," Cassim mused. "But the one created by Soulshard just makes things interesting, right? I'm getting my brother back."

Cassim held out his right hand, and a one-handed longsword stored in his pouch equipped itself so he had two weapons again.

"If you want to stop me then feel free to try," Cassim snipped at PoH.

He turned on his heel and stalked from the lair. No one tried to stop him this time. This was going to be the first time he would take advantage of Soulshard's glitch in the open. Every other time he had used it, it had been to either kill monsters, or those he used it on didn't survive. For the first time ever, it was likely the glitch would be exposed. As the PoH loved to say to justify player-killing, the system allowed it, so why not do it? If people found out about it, then so what? As long as he got Kobi back safely then it would be worth it.

"Kobi," Cassim whispered as he unlocked Soulshard's claws and tightened his grip on the sword. "It's my fault you got dragged into this game, and I'm sorry for that. Just hold on. I'm coming."

* * *

 **Even a game as advanced as SAO has glitches, or should i say, it's natural for something like SAO to have glitches. Not only is this game super-advanced, it's the first ever of it's class, and Kayaba rewrote it with the _Death Game_ subroutine (something it wasn't supposed to have otherwise). I feel like Kirito shouldn't be the only one with a fancy trick hidden in their sleeve.**


	8. Naïve

"You have to be kidding me," Merrik muttered under his breath as he leaned against the wall in the entry room of the Red Hunter's base. "You did what?"

Asuna, sitting across from Lyra in one of the chairs of the room, glanced at Merrik. "With the information on the Laughing Coffin's base confirmed, Heathcliff sent a group of messengers from some of the Clearing Guilds to speak to them."

"You sent messengers to negotiate with red players?" Merrik banged his head back against the wall. "What an idiot."

Asuna bristled, and Lyra glanced calmly at Merrik without scolding him.

"He might have a point," Lyra told Asuna calmly. "My guild has been dealing with red players for a very long time. "All that will happen is that they will kill your messengers, and they will keep killing them. This isn't real for them and neither are the murders they're committing. Negotiation won't work. I sent a message to the clearers with the information because I wanted you to reinforce us on a crusade party and wipe them out."

"Wipe them out," Asuna repeated in a baffled tone. "It is true that they are the biggest threat to us right now, but you sound just like them."

"Then what's your plan?" Jan called out to Asuna, standing behind the chair Lyra was in. "All you're doing is giving them target practice."

"You're not wrong," Asuna admitted, "but you are not right. Killing game created monsters is one thing, but murder is quite another."

"We've become quite adept at killing reds," Merrik scoffed without moving his head or looking at Asuna. "If we weren't allowed to fight back against them the Cardinal system that manages Aincrad would stop us. It's not though."

"You sound like reds yourself," Asuna challenged Merrik darkly. "Isn't that how PoH gathered players to create the Laughing Coffin? He said that same thing. It's allowed so why not kill to enjoy the game because Kayaba would be held accountable of any murders, not the players. Is that what you say you're doing?"

"Why you!" Merrik snarled and pushed off from the wall to stand straight.

Lyra raised her left hand calmly, and Merrik stopped before he advanced forward and attacked Asuna. "First Merrik, we're in a safe zone unless you have forgotten. Second, you could have worded that better."

"You agree with him though," Asuna said softly.

"Yes," Lyra assured her friend. "We have a right to defend ourselves, and the only way the reds are going to stop is if we kill them. By killing them, we prevent future murders that would otherwise happen. A few murderers won't be missed Asuna, but the players they attack will."

Asuna didn't say anything and Lyra smiled.

"It's an interesting paradox, isn't it?" Lyra asked Asuna. "Is it right to kill a murderer? Are they still human, so is killing a killer still murder? You say we shouldn't kill reds, but where is the line drawn? When is it okay to kill a murderer and save lives? How many do they have to kill before killing them becomes a favor instead of a crime? The reds have killed over a thousand players already. Is that enough lives lost to justify killing those responsible and stop that number from rising?"

Asuna hesitated, and Lyra glanced at Merrik. Merrik stepped back and leaned against the wall again, standing down. Raiku and Aden were upstairs with Kobi, Raiku having locked down Kobi's messaging system and access to his inventory. Xavian was outside on the porch, relaxing on the seat cushion swing and keeping an eye on the Knights of Blood who had come with Asuna and were waiting outside. Kuradeel, a KoB assigned to protect Asuna, had been especially unreasonable. Alto was sitting on the shore near the bridge that led to the mainland, having the same assignment as Xavian.

"We will not kill them without just cause," Asuna said after thinking over her answer. "We will give them a chance to surrender peacefully, and wait until the game ends in Black Iron Palace's dungeon."

Merrik muttered something about fools, and looked away. Jan snickered softly, and Skye turned his gold cat eyes to him curiously. While Jan pet his Tamed-Beast, Asuna faced Lyra strongly.

"If it comes to it then we will do things your way," Asuna said after a moment of thinking of a proposition. "But we will not do that as our first resort."

"Fine," Lyra shrugged.

"Fine?" Merrik demanded.

"Fine," Lyra repeated. "They won't believe us, so they will have to learn the hard way. We will wait until you realize we need to fight before we strike at the Laughing Coffin."

"Thank you," Asuna gritted out. "About helping us…"

"No," Lyra shook her head. "We will not help your messengers. I won't put members of my guild on your suicide mission."

Asuna looked at Lyra strongly, and then stood with a sigh.

"You must think me arrogant," Lyra mused at the disgust that ha briefly flashed through Asuna's eyes.

"Put bluntly," Asuna said, "I do."

Lyra nodded while Merrik simmered. "Understandable. My arrogance is well-earned Asuna. We do not have your skill in killing monsters and clearing floors, but there is no guild with our expertise in dealing with red players. When it comes to them, we are the only ones who have the experience to know. This I know. As Merrik said, sending in messengers will only give the reds target practice. When you become serious enough to take appropriate action, I will see you."

"If you can grow up that much," Merrik muttered.

"I am grown up," Asuna snapped. "I don't kill as easily as you can do though."

"There's nothing wrong with hesitating to kill," Merrik promised her. "What's wrong is your hesitation to take action. This isn't a fairy tale. This is real life, or as real life as you can get trapped in a virtual reality. Murderers in real life don't stop killing because someone asks them, and the reds won't do that either. You're naïve to think otherwise."

"You don't know that for certain," Asuna told him strongly.

"Then prove him wrong," Lyra offered. "Do you have the messenger sent by KoB in your friend list Asuna?"  
"Yes," Asuna agreed warily, "but you can't message players when they're in a dungeon."

"I know," Lyra nodded. "Just open your friend list and scroll down to his name. If his name is greyed out then that means he is dead. See if his name is."

Asuna dubiously looked at Lyra and then flicked her hand down. With a chime her menu opened, and she tapped on her friend list and scrolled down to the messenger's name.

"It's not greyed out," Asuna said in a tone that might be described a little smug. "Valiant is fine."

"He won't be for long," Merrik promised darkly without sounding defensive.

Asuna gave him a tired look, amazed he was so stubborn, and then looked back at Valiant's name. She was relieved her friend was still alright. Then her eyes widened and she hissed between her teeth as the color of Valiant's name faded and it turned grey. She took a step back, staring at his name.

"His name just turned grey, didn't it?" Jan asked softly.

Asuna didn't answer, but she didn't have to at this point. Her reaction had given her away.

"If you think they'll surrender and do anything but kill your messengers, then you are naïve." Merrik repeated, pressing his point home.

Asuna closed her menu with a sharp jerk and lowered her hands to her side. "I will inform Heathcliff of your advice, and will be in touch."

Lyra tipped her head in goodbye, and Asuna left the room with a sharp click of her boots. Jan and Merrik let her go unchallenged. The Red Hunters and Knights of Blood outside straightened when Asuna left, and the Knights of Blood fell in rank near her. They were able to walk along the bridge that led back to the mainland, the length of it also a Safe Zone.

"What are you planning to do?" Kuradeel asked Asuna.

"The messenger we sent is dead," Asuna informed him. "I will speak with Heathcliff. The Red Hunters think us naïve if we believe this can end anyway but killing."

"They're the most arrogant guild there is," Kuradeel scoffed, "and they're all Beaters."

"Maybe, maybe not," Asuna said softly. "But of all the green players, they're the ones who know how to kill the best. If we're going to launch a crusade party against the Laughing Coffin, then we need their help. We don't have a choice. Casualties on our side will be extreme without them. It'll be up to Heathcliff if we start a crusade. If we do though, I would want the Red Hunters on our side, arrogant or not."

"What a bunch of fools," Merrik chuckled after the Knights of Blood left.

"They haven't been fighting the reds as long as we have," Lyra reminded Merrik.

"It shows," Merrik scorned.

"Speaking of naïve," Lyra mused as Alto and Xavian came inside, "how's our red doing?"

Jan flicked his hand, and brought up the menu. "No messages from the twins, and no alert saying the proximity alert Raiku put up being broke. He hasn't left his room."

"I'm going to talk to him," Lyra nodded. "The more information we have on the Laughing Coffin when we start the crusade against them, the smoother the fight will go. You lot get back to your duties."

"Yes Commander," all but Merrik chimed.

Merrik nodded after a second, and Lyra marched up the stairs to the upper level where the bedrooms were. There were eight bedrooms and seven Red Hunters, so Kobi had been placed in the eight. She knocked on the door where he was and then opened it.

Kobi was sitting on the bed, knees drawn up to his chest protectively and chin lowered in a downcast manner. Aden was sitting backwards on the desk's chair, arms crossed and resting on its back, and Raiku was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall to one side of the door. At a nod from Lyra, both Raiku and Aden stood and left with respectful nods towards her.

Kobi raised his head and looked at her warily, not lowering his knees. His fingers were still locked around them protectively, and his grip seemed to tighten. Aden closed the door behind him and Lyra walked to stand at the foot of the bed where Kobi sat.

"Hello Kobi," Lyra told him levelly.

Kobi didn't say a word, and stared at her with the crimson-contacted eyes.

"Will you tell me about your guild now?" Lyra asked him. "How many members of the Laughing Coffin there are, and how many are in their base on this floor?"

"No," Kobi said.

The fact that he spoke surprised Lyra.

"Why not?" Lyra asked with a tilt of her head. "Surely you're not loyal to them."

"My brother's with them," Kobi said softly. "You plan to kill every red player you see during your crusade. You have no plans of taking a single prisoner, no matter what you've told the others. You'll kill him to."

"Tell us who your brother is," Lyra offered. "We will make an exception for him."

"You say that," Kobi whispered, "but you can't guarantee that in battle. Even if your guild agrees not to kill him, a member of another guild might."

"Why are you even with the reds?" Lyra asked, deciding to try another angle.

"My brother-" Kobi said softly.

Lyra shook her head in interruption. "I know you decided to stay with your brother, but why did he join? Does he believe PoH's nonsense about it being okay since the game allows it and Kayaba is the real killer? Or does he believe the people don't actually die?"

"They die," Kobi disagreed, "I believe that. We both do."

"Then _why_?" Lyra repeated.

"It's fair," Kobi shrugged.

"Fair?" Lyra looked at Kobi blankly. "How is killing someone fair?"

"You only have one life in Sword Art," Kobi shrugged, "just like you only have one life in the real world. If you die in the real world then you're dead, just like in the game. This is like the real world, only better. This is like a fairytale come to life, and you get to live it out."

"Don't you miss the real world?" Lyra asked him softly. "The sooner we can eliminate PoH, the more we can focus on clearing levels. Once we clear the levels then the game ends and we can all go home."

Kobi tightened his grip and shook his head. "I don't miss it. Our father isn't here to hurt us, and we always have enough to eat. You can't feel pain in this world, but you feel joy. I'm with my brother, and we can stay together. Child protection services wouldn't have let us stay together."

Lyra leaned back, surprised by Kobi's confession. She missed her parents and her pet cats in the real world, and she missed walking across the street to see Jan, or biking along the trails of the park. Her life was fine, but she hadn't thought about Kobi's life in the real world.

Kobi and his brother didn't want to go back to the real world. They wanted to stay here. It seemed to fair to them after all because no matter which world they were in they only had one life, but this world was much easier for them to live in. She had never thought that there would be people who didn't _want_ to leave Sword Art Online.

Jan was standing beside the door outside Kobi's room with Skye standing on his shoulders, the dragon listening just as Jan. Due to Jan's eavesdropping skill being high, how he had managed to increase it was beyond Lyra, he could hear the conversation. Kobi seemed to believe his brother's reasoning behind being a red, a fact that amazed Jan. Although the reasoning did make sense, it was skewed reasoning.

It seemed to Jan that Asuna and the Clearers weren't the only naïve ones stuck in the Death Game.

* * *

 **Are they naive? Is Lyra correct about killing the red players or is Asuna? The Red Hunters are starting to act like red players and have a high number of kills, impressively high considering how few of them there are. Act like your enemy and you will start to become them, and they have spent too long too long killing other players, just like the reds.**


	9. The Death of a Hunter

"Another messenger, another kill," Jan mused to himself as he strolled along the town.

So far, three messengers had been sent to speak to the Laughing Coffin, two by the Knights of Blood and one by the Divine Dragons Alliance. Unless he was mistaken, the DDA had just sent a fourth messenger into Floor 24 Labyrinth Dungeon. He wondered when the Clearers would finally give up and realize that they needed to form a crusade group and defeat the red players in person. They were such cowards, unwilling to fight even though it was their only option.

Jan wandered around the edge of the town near the boundary of the safe zone, Skye having been left at HQ to help watch over the red he had captured. As he wandered, he got sideways looks and whispers from the other players. News that he had a Tamed-Beast had spread, and it had increased his publicity even more than his Red Hunter uniform did. He simply couldn't stay at HQ any longer either. Listening to Lyra try to argue some sense into representatives from the KoB, DDA, Fuurinkazan, and several solo betas was taxing. None of them wanted to commit their forces to do what needed to be done.

Jan crossed his arms over his chest and tugged out the necklace he wore from under his tunic. He had won it from the Last Attack drop on Floor 48's boss, and as far as he could tell, it had no function. The name for it was " _Second Heart_ ," and it was apparently the same necklace the Floor 48 Boss, _The Ghost of Medusa_ , had been wearing. As far as necklaces went it was simple enough, a clear sphere for a pendent with a ruby heart hovering inside it. If he didn't have as much inventory space as he did, he would have sold it long ago.

With a sigh, he dropped it back into his tunic. Musing, he looked out over the islands and saw to some surprise that there was a player fighting a monster. Monsters were rare here, and what surprised him more was that the player was losing. Some people made the mistake of assuming that because there weren't many monsters here they were relatively easy to defeat and a good way to earn experience and col with minimum risk. If anything, the opposite was true. There were less monsters, but they were more of a challenge.

This player was alone, also a surprise, and was wearing a brown cloak that hid his features from sight. He, assuming it was a he, was wielding a one-handed sword and shield. He were struggling, and Jan shook his head. A quick flourish drew his sword, and Jan left the safe zone to approach the injured player.

He quickened his pace to a run, and called out. "You need help?"

The player turned to face him, and called out in a familiar voice, "yes!"

Jan didn't place the voice before he slipped inside the monster's guard and blocked the fish things claws. "Kill it!"

While Jan was holding it in place, the other player obeyed his order and killed the monster. He used a high-level sword skill, surprising Jan. The monster shattered, and the player got the last attack as Jan had wished.

"Why didn't you use that high level skill to begin with?" Jan said with a tired sigh.

The player didn't respond, and as Jan turned, he received a nasty surprise. In an instant, the player had stabbed Jan through the heart with his sword. Jan was barely able to gasp before his attacker had slammed him to the ground, sword still skewed through him almost to the hilt, pinning him in place. His HP took a devastating blow, and continued to drop, although his auto-recovery factor was compensating as well as it could, slowing the HP drain.

The player smiled beneath the hood that hid his face, and applied a little more pressure so the sword went even deeper into the ground. Jan stared in stupor, and his attacker brushed his hood back with a flourish. Dark green hair with rose red bangs styled short and spikey in a messy manner revealed itself and his dark blue eyes flashed triumphantly. On his left arm was a vambrace with three metal claws mounted on it. When he pushed down his hood, the Thief Cloak's ability ended and his green cursor turned orange.

"Remember me?" Cassim challenged Jan. "Or are you drawing a _blank_?"

He hissed the last word and twisted the sword, plunging it a little deeper through Jan's chest and into the ground. Jan as well and truly pinned, and there was little he could do.

"Cassim," Jan greeted the red with false calm. "You led the blockade on the Town of Beginnings. Do you mind removing your blade from me?"

"Where's the red you captured?" Cassim snarled. "My kin?"

"Kin?" Jan asked blankly.

Casism swallowed, realizing he had misspoken. Jan didn't realize that Kobi was Cassim's brother yet, and he didn't want the Red Hunters to find that out. Instead, he stood, leaving the sword pinning Jan to the ground. He was wearing a pair of black fingerless tight-fitting gloves with diamonds cut out of his knuckles, and took off his right glove.

Once the glove was removed he raised his hand and turned it so Jan could see the back of his hand. Tattooed on the back of his hand was the black symbol of the Laughing Coffin guild. Jan could only be so surprised, and he checked his HP urgently. It was nearing the yellow mark, his auto-recovery not able to compensate entirely for the damage.

"Laughing Coffin," Jan smiled. "So you did blockade the town on PoH's orders after all."

" _Don't_ make it sound like I'm a pet of PoH," Cassim warned and tugged the glove back on, setting the Velcro wrist strap back in place. "That's Nevermore's position. PoH isn't strong enough to kill me, as he well knows."

"Why do I get the feeling you two don't exactly get along?" Jan said sarcastically.

He tried to reach for his sword, but he had dropped it and it was now out of reach.

"I'm the one asking questions hunter," Cassim snarled softly, "not you. Where is the red you captured?"

"He's in a safe zone where you can't kill him," Jan promised. "I know how you reds don't like traitors."

"I'm not!" Cassim started to shout and then cooled his temper. "I don't want to kill him. It was only a matter of time until our base was found anyway, and killing your messengers has become quite a sport."

Kobi was in danger from PoH giving Nevermore orders to kill him, not from his older brother.

"A sport," Jan smiled. "I wish you would tell that to that self-righteous brat Asuna. Maybe then she'd start listening to us Red Hunters about a thing or two. We do know reds better than any other green."

"What safe zone is Kobi in?" Cassim repeated his ordered question. "Tell me and I'll take that sword out of your chest so your HP doesn't run out. I won't hesitate to kill a Red Hunter, being a red player and all."

"Your Thief Cloak disguises your cursor green," Jan observed, "I'm impressed that you have one. Those cloaks are SS-rank rare."

Cassim sighed at Jan's insolence, and raised his left arm from his cloak's entanglement. Soulshard's three claws clicks and extended past his fingers. He lowered the claws to Jan's chest, ready to slash it.

"Tell me where Kobi is," Cassim repeated.

Jan smiled as he curled his fingers around one of the throwing picks on his belt, and flicked it up into the air. It scored the side of Cassim's neck and Cassim flinched back with a quiet swear. He tripped and splashed into the water, going under. Now that he had a chance, Jan wrapped his hands around the hilt and pulled it up. With effort, he pulled the sword free of his chest and sat up.

He barely had time to sit up before he had to raise Cassim's sword and block an attack. Cassim had thrown Jan's dropped sword at him like a spear, and the tip of the sword scratched along the edge of the one Jan was holding. It flew into the air form the force, spun end over end, and then fell flat onto the ground.

Jan scrambled to his feet, trying to pick up the hilt of his sword. His fingers passed harmlessly thorough the hilt as though it didn't exist, reminding Jan that it was impossible in the game to wield two weapons at once. He dropped Cassim's sword and picked up his own.

Cassim splashed out of the water up to shore, completely drenched with rivulets of water running down his form. Jan snickered slightly at the Red Player that had turned into a washed-up rat. His opponent didn't look nearly as scary as he had a few minutes ago.

"Shut up!" Cassim ordered.

He knelt down and wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his sword Jan had abandoned. Soulshard's claws were still extended on his other arm. To Jan's utter disbelief, Cassim's fingers curled around the hilt of the sword and he _picked it up_. One weapon glowed white, and the other a pale blue as two different sword skills activated at once.

"What? How…" Jan stared at the two weapons as his HP came closer to the green zone. " _How_ are you doing that!"

Cassim smiled, not seeing the need to explain himself. Soulshard was an amazing loophole, his favorite glitch in the whole game. He couldn't use the same sword skill for two weapons, that would be like preforming a sword style on his own, but he had learned how to merge two different skills to great effect. As it would later be learned, the equivalent of using a sword style by yourself would be a unique skill called Dual Blades. Because SAO didn't register Soulshard as a weapon, Cassim was able to use it _and_ another weapon, duplicating the unique skill.

"I'll show you," Cassim promised, "unless you tell me where Kobi is."

"I'd rather see," Jan challenged.

Cassim smiled. "I was dearly hoping you would say that."

Then Cassim unleashed his sword skills and leapt at Jan. By now, Jan had had enough time to ready himself and he blocked the sword's strikes with his shield or sidestepped then. He did fine until Cassim locked hilts with him, trapping his blade away. Then his claws struck. They raked across his shield and then Jan's chest deeply, leaving gouge marks on the shield. The damage to his chest leaked red pixels, and did not heal.

Jan was glad he couldn't feel pain as Cassim punched him with an uppercut, his hand still wrapped around the sword hilt for a little added oomph. It created an effect similar to wearing brass knuckles, and the force knocked Jan's head up. He actually somersaulted in midair and then crashed to the ground on his stomach. Before he could recover, Cassim brought his sword down and sliced off Jan's right hand and the sword he still held.

Jan left his sword and hand and rolled to one side to dodge a strike and scramble to his feet, aware that his hand would regenerate in time. He tried to fumble for a healing crystal kept in his pouch, glancing at the yellow color of his HP as it neared red. Cassim was too smart to let him near a crystal or give him time for his battle healing to recover his HP.

Jan would have managed to handle the attack fine with his shield and agility if there was one weapon to look at, but Cassim had two. Unlike monsters, Cassim was a freethinking human who could improvise and whose combat style was unpredictable and varied. Two individual sword arts at different intervals, staggered so there was no post-motion delay was trouble enough, but Jan had never seen a weapon like Cassim's claws and he had no idea what sort of sword skills it possessed. As a red, Cassim was also skilled in killing players, and Jan didn't doubt his kills were numerable.

He wished he had his second hand as he performed quite an acrobatic series of moves to block the strikes. Cassim was still able to land a few nicking scratches, just enough to keep Jan's HP from recovering out of yellow. Jan wished he had his sword back, or even a free hand to use martial arts skills. Someone would have to realize Jan was in trouble, he wasn't that far away from Panareze, and warn the other Red Hunters even if they didn't help themselves. All he needed was to stall.

There was no opening in Cassim's style. Where one sword was unleashing a second was charging, an endless cycle allowing him to flow from one style to the other without hesitation. His stats had to be unbelievably high.

Cassim almost smiled, enjoying himself. Even without a weapon and missing a hand, Jan was surviving Cassim's strikes. It was impressive. Jan slipped past his guard somehow landed a sidekick on Cassim's chest, knocking him a few steps back. The mighty Red Hunter was turning to bolt back to the safe zone.

Cassim tssked and lowered his left arm, the claws of Soulshard glowing silver as a very unique sword skill activated. He raised Soulshard eye level and then flicked his arm in a sweeping motion away from him as if he was throwing a Frisbee to a friend. The silver energy coating the claws flew off the claws towards Jan, forming into a crescent-shaped blur of raw energy. His strike connected with Jan's back, and Jan's eyes widened in surprise as he tripped and fell to the ground. Crescent Strike, the name of the long-range sword skill that was more like casting a spell than anything, was one of a kind. It was a skill unique to Soulshard and exactly why Cassim loved his claws.

Unfortunately for Jan, Cassim's patience had just run out. Only a handful of times he had needed to he use Crescent Strike, and the fact that he used it now meant that he needed to finish this while he could. Every second delayed was a second one of the Red Hunters could get antsy and kill Kobi.

He stalked forward and skewered his claws through Jan's neck. With his sword, he crucified one of Jan's hands to the ground to help hold him in place. Since they were currently in battle, Cassim was able to see Jan's HP drop to the red and continue dropping.

"Sorry hunter," Cassim said without the slightest trace of sorrow in his voice. "I'm going after my brother, and if I had to guess, he's at your HQ here on this floor. I'll go get him myself."

Then the HP hit zero, and Jan's avatar shattered into hundreds of blue prisms that fluttered by Cassim's face. Jan's necklace, Second Heart, fell to the ground and stayed there as Cassim sat back. Soulshard's claws retracted back over Cassim's arm with a click and a hiss of sliding metal. He put his sword in its sheathe on the right side of his belt.

Cassim noticed the necklace with some surprise, since there usually wasn't anything left after a player died, and picked it up. The red heart in the center was glowing. He wasn't sure what it was, but he shrugged and put it in his inventory. Then he pulled the hood of his Thief Cloak back over his head, and his orange cursor turned green again.

With a silent ghost of a smile, Cassim strolled into the town of Panareze on his way to the Red Hunter's headquarters.

* * *

 **Cassim is overpowered, and more then that, he's looking for his family. If you have a sibling then you should know just how far you will go when that sibling's life is in jeopardy. You might argue with them, but when they're in danger, you'll find yourself able to go to extreme lengths to protect them. I am an only child, but my friends who have siblings have told me this.**

 **Power and determination in this magnitude is frightful to go up against. I'm thinking about putting Cassim against Kirito, since Soulshard lets him mimic Kirito's Duel Blades. What do you guys think about that? (please leave a _written_ response as a review instead of saying it aloud to yourself so i know what it is. I'm no mindreader after all.)**

 **Yes, Jan is dead.**


	10. Who Watches the Watchers?

Kobi sat on the floor of the room the Red Hunters had trapped him in after disabling his message system. He was being kept caged, but Kobi knew that he could be executed at any moment because of his orange cursor. Jan must have noticed that Kobi liked Skye because he had left his Tamed-Beast with the red when he went out for a walk. One of the Red Hunters had given him honey, Skye's favorite, and he was now letting Skye lick it off his hand. It wasn't much, but the dragon's presence in his lap was a small comfort.

Skye stopped nuzzling his scaly wolf-like muzzle in Kobi's palm suddenly and raised his head. The feathers on his head and down his spine fluffed up and then stood straight, something that reminded Kobi of a cat puffing up. Then the Tamed-Beast pushed off Kobi's arm, scratching it in the process, and flew to the footboard of the bed.

Then he threw his head back and howled. His mournful lament made Kobi's skin crawl, and although it had no words to it, it had all of Skye's emotion to it. Kobi stared as the Tamed-Beast as he fell from the footboard he had been standing on and into Kobi's lap. He caught the Tamed-Beast in his arms, holding it.

"Skye?" Kobi asked as he cradled the mourning dragon in his arms.

Skye didn't answer, but after a few seconds the dragon laid his head on Kobi's arm and stayed there. Kobi suddenly got a bad feeling about Jan, Skye's partner, but he didn't know what to say or do. Instead, he cradled the small creature close to his chest, humming a lullaby his mother used to sing to him in an attempt to comfort it. It gave a small, pained, mew-like sound, but didn't open his eyes. The tamed-beast just lay there, and Kobi pet it, humming the lullaby.

* * *

Lyra stood and stretched as Raiku and Alto began to pass out refreshments to the people gathered in the Red Hunters base. Asuna shook her head when Alto offered her a mug of apple cider.

"I think I'll be leaving," Asuna told her.

"Leaving?" Merrik asked. "The conversation's not over."

"It is now," Asuna assured and stood from her seat.

Scattered around the room, besides the various Red Hunters present, were representatives from the Divine Dragons Alliance, Knights of Blood, Silver Flags, and Fuurinkazan. They were all Clearer guilds, some more famous than others.

"You didn't agree to a Crusade," Merrik objected.

"We need a team to stop the Laughing Coffin," Lyra told her sharply. "If we wait too long they'll move and we'll lose our best to get rid of them."

"They're fellow players," Schmitt, a member of the DDA, pointed out.

"They're also killers," Merrik hissed. "That's why their cursors are orange. They've killed before and if we don't stop them they'll continue to kill. We just need to stop them."

"You mean kill them," Klein, leader of Fuurinkazan corrected softly.

Sitting next to him was Kirito, who had an expression similar to Klein.

"But then the murders will stop," Lyra pointed out. "Or do you like being killed by other players even as the monsters and mechanics of the Death Game continue to thin our numbers?"

None of them said anything, and Lyra, who was at the end of her patience, threw her hands up into the air and turned away. She thought she understood why Jan had given up and left.

"Fine," she snapped, whirling to face the other Clearers present. "I give up. If my guild had higher numbers I wouldn't even be bothering you and we would have already cleared them out. Go run away back to the new Floor and hunt computer-generated monsters. But heed this, since _you_ won't help us kill those red players you are responsible for the players they murder."

"That's out of line!" Schmitt intruded.

"I said get out of my base!" Lyra slashed a hand through the air, giving them a flat, frosty look of barely veiled disgust. "Until you lot grow some backbone I don't want to see you here again! When you do come to your senses you know where we are."

"But," Klein tried to say.

"Out!" Lyra shouted, putting her hand on the hilt of her saber.

The gathered players gave a start at her anger and battle stance. They had forgotten though, that the Red Hunters specialized in killing players. In a way, they were even better murderers then the red players that made their livelihood in killing. One by one, the representatives left until only Kirito remained.

"Somehow I doubt you agree with our plan," Lyra addressed him with a sharp snap to her voice. "So leave."

"I don't agree with killing other players whose only crime is being imprisoned in a game by a madman," Kirito agreed.

Lyra looked away, laughing softly at Kirito's naïvety. The laugh did it for Kirito. He had dealt with Red Players before. Once, he had protected a younger player named Silica when she was attacked by a group called the Titan's Hand. Members of the Laughing Coffin had crossed paths with him before, as well as others who had killed to get their orange cursor. They had the same laugh Lyra had.

She raised her eyes to him, locks of her hair falling across her face as she moved. Her eyes were the same as the red players to, hard, and illuminated with a certain type of light that shouldn't be there. Yes, Lyra had killed, but in that instant he realized that she had one other thing in common with the Red Players. Lyra had liked it. She liked the killing as much as any red player.

"The crime of the red players is not being trapped," Lyra corrected Kirito in a patient, almost cordial voice – a stark contrast to her earlier shouting. "Their crime is killing the real players that _are_ innocent. Tell me Kirito, if you had to kill, who would rather strike down: a player with an orange cursor, or one that is still green?"

"I'm not going to answer that," Kirito responded stiffly.

"You don't have to," Lyra assured him. "I know what your answer would be. The red players gave up the right to live when they began murdering. All my guild is doing is trying to finish it. By not helping us you and the rest of the Clearers are sentencing a lot more green players to be killed."

"Where does your right come from?" Kirito asked suddenly and harshly. "What gives you and your guild the right to judge other players and kill them?"

"Our right comes from Cardinal," Lyra shrugged, a sort of smile sliding across her lips. "Cardinal runs SAO, and it gave us the right to "judge and kill" when it turned the cursors of those that have killed to orange. It doesn't turn our cursors orange when we kill one of them because it does not consider that murder. It's almost as if the game is asking someone to kill them."

"You kill because the game lets you," Kirito swallowed. "That's the same line PoH uses when he recruits more players to join the Laughing Coffin."

"He's got the right idea," Lyra agreed, "just the wrong methods. By killing, he and his "guild" have given up the right to live."

"No one gives up the right to live," Kirito said softly, "even if certain vigilantes see otherwise."

Lyra didn't take offense to his labeling her guild as vigilantes, perhaps taking it as a compliment. She leaned in closer to Kirito.

"Say what you wish, Black Swordsman," she told Kirito, using a nickname he had been given. "But the red players won't stop killing. My guild and I are in the right. As soon as you realize that, you're free to come back and help. I suggest you do so quickly though, before all the other green players are dead."

Kirito took a step back, seeing amusement dance across Lyra's eyes, and then quickly turned and left. Lyra laughed softly once he had gone.

"What a bunch of morons," she mused to herself.

Then she turned back to where Merrik was watching. Alto had joined him.

"We'll have to wait a bit to go on our crusade," Lyra admitted to them. "For the next week, don't interfere with the red players. Let them kill as they see fit. We'll give the Clearers a taste of what it would be like if we _vigilantes_ weren't here to mop up the mess."

"The reds'll kill a lot of players when they realize we won't stop them," Merrik pointed out.

Lyra smiled, crossing her arms behind her back. "I know. Eventually though, the other players will _have_ to accept our plan and join our Crusade. I wonder how many dead greens it will take before they figure out we know best."

"Quite a few probably," Merrik agreed.

Alto nodded agreement and then walked away to find Raiku. He had promised he'd help her raise her cooking stat. Merrik to, turned and went outside to practice his Sword Skills. When the other players did realize they needed to submit to Lyra's leadership, they would go on the Crusade and he wanted his skills sharp to kill reds.

Lyra lounged on a sofa, arms crossed behind her back. She was still smiling. All she had to do was sit back and let the reds kill some innocents. Eventually, the other players would have no choice but to act against the reds. Since the Red Hunters had the most experience that meant taking orders from her. As far as she was concerned, the players of SAO needed to pause expanding the human frontier and clean house. There were hundreds of red players that needed to be killed.

She swiped her hand downward and materialized her menu, thinking she could message Jan and tell him that the moronic Clearers had left and that it was safe to come back. As he was part of her guild, his name at the top of her friend list. Lyra tapped on it to open a message and was surprised when nothing happened. She tapped on his name again, but still nothing happened.

Her smile faded away slowly and she looked closer at his name. The yellow letters had greyed out, signaling that she couldn't contact him. Lyra sat up and tried to tap on his name for a third time, but her Commander's name still refused to open. She knew what it meant, but it didn't instantly sink in.

Jan was dead.

* * *

Kirito stopped by the market of Panareze, and just stood there watching players go about their business with NPCs and fellow players. Since there were less monsters then usual on this floor, there were a high number of players present. A player with red and green hair bumped into another player by accident, almost making the second player drop his bag of groceries. The first player, whoever he was, caught the bag and helped steady it in their hands.

"Sorry," the red and green haired player apologized.

The other player nodded and they parted ways. Since there weren't very many monsters, the reality of the Death Game seemed very far away. People here were more relaxed. Often, they could safely leave the city to earn col without extreme fear of being killed. He understood why the Red Hunters had made this floor – the most peaceful floor –their floor. Only it wasn't the most peaceful floor anymore. Although the general populace didn't yet know it, the Laughing Coffin had also made this floor theirs.

Being forced to kill someone was something Kirito couldn't comprehend, even if Lyra did it all the time, but he knew that he didn't want to see players killed. They had to stop the red players and they would hardly stop on their own. If only Lyra wasn't being so arrogant about it! What right did she have to judge who should live and who should die?

Cardinal had given her the right, Kirito thought. Then he shook his head sadly as he recalled Lyra's smile. She and the other Red Hunters might have started out as the good guys, but they were getting carried away. They were starting to enjoy killing the other players. In a way, the Red Hunters were even worse than the red players. Red players at least, on some level, had to know what they were doing was wrong. Lyra truly believed that what she was doing was right.

The Red Hunters watched the red players, but who was keeping the Red Hunters in line? Kirito had a bad feeling that one day the other players might have to fight Lyra and her Red Hunters. He had a even worse feeling that that day might be soon.

* * *

 **Lyra is not the same person you know from "Rise of the Red Hunters." It's a somewhat classical scenario. They got too much power and authority and no one to keep them in check. Now the Red Hunters are becoming dangerous to more then red players.**

 **Yes, the green and red haired player in the last part is Cassim. He's in the city. A player with an orange cursor can enter a city or another protected area without raising alarms. Their HP can go down though, even if a green player's can't. This puts them at a distinct disadvantage, and since they are red players, it makes them a tempting and easily killed target. Cassim's cloak may make his cursor look green, but it doesn't afford him any protection. It's an SS-Rank good.**

 **No, I'm not giving you too many details about what to expect. I hate spoilers.**


	11. Scarlett

"He's not dead," Merrik announced to Lyra.

Lyra was sitting on the sofa staring blankly at the floorboards of their base, but slowly raised her eyes at his words. "What?"

"Aden and Xavian are at the Monument of Life," Merrik told her. "They just found his name. It hasn't been scratched out."

"I agree with Merrik," Raiku said, looking through his administration menu. "His name is still registered."

"How is that possible?" Lyra asked. "His name is greyed out in the friend list. The game thinks he's dead."

"Cardinal, the system that oversees Aincrad, disagrees," Raiku told her smoothly. "He's been removed from the general game, but not from the system."

Lyra exhaled deeply, relief seeping into her eyes as she looked back at the table.

"If he's not in the game," Alto began, "does that mean he's in Cardinal?"

"If that was the case then you wouldn't be able to see his name on the Monument of Life," Raiku disagreed. "He's in the game, but he's not. I don't know how to explain this. His HP ran out, but the game hasn't deleted him. It's… well, it's kind of put him in storage."

"Then there will be a way to get him out of storage," Merrik pointed out, "right?"

"Can you do it Raiku?" Lyra asked softly.

"Normally I'd say yes," Raiku admitted, "but I've already tried that. His avatar's file is somewhere between Aincrad and Cardinal, sort of like suspended animation. If I want to bring him back to Aincrad, I would have to find where is his file is."

"You'd need a GM console to do that, wouldn't you?" Lyra asked him.

"Yes," Raiku admitted, "unless I get lucky. Wherever his avatar is being stored it seems to be safe. When the game is beaten, he'll probably be released with the others players."

"So you just want to leave him there?" Alto made a face.

"It might be best for now at least," Raiku admitted. "He's stable."

"The game's not sure if he's dead or not," Merrik agreed. "I think Skye has become Kobi's new tamed beast."

"If everything is stable with Jan then the next question is what made his HP drop to zero?" Lyra stood, turning to face her guild with more strength then she felt.

"Lyra," Merrik cautioned her. "You don't have to put on such effort."

"Jan's not dead," Lyra repeated. "His HP hit zero but instead of dying it got put in some sort of storage. You just said his file is stable. That means he can wait. What can't wait is whatever killed him. He's a powerful warrior. Some random monster wouldn't have leveled his HP."

Merrik looked at her warily, aware that she was taking this very well. Lyra was right though. There was likely a significant threat here, and unlike Jan, it would not wait.

"Merrik," Lyra began to give out orders, "recall Xavian and Aden. They, you, Alto, and I are going to search the floor for whoever killed Jan. It's probably a red player given that their base is here. Raiku, you stay here and keep working on Jan."

Raiku was not a combatant first so he nodded agreement.

"Alto, go on ahead to the town's teleport gate," Lyra told her. "Brief Aden and Xavian on the situation. Merrik and I will join you shortly. Do not leave the city's safe zone until we know more."

"Yes Commander," Alto nodded and walked from the building.

Lyra waited until Alto was gone before turning to Merrik and Raiku. "I think we can use this to our advantage. Raiku, send a message stating that the red players really did just kill Jan. Tell the other clearers that I'm done waiting for them to come to their senses. Either they help us wipe out the Laughing Coffin or we make them help us. What's today's date?"

"August 3rd," Merrik answered. "It sounds like you intend to use Scarlett. Do you?"

"I think I just might," Lyra told him in a flat, serious voice. "Have you finished the preparations for Scarlett, Raiku?"

"I can do almost anything as long as I don't mess with Kayaba's _Death Game_ protocol now that I've given myself level five administrative clearance." Raiku reminded Lyra, "but I still can't access level six – the level Kayaba has – so I can't override his _Death Game_. Although I implanted my own subroutine, named Scarlett, into SAO's coding his higher clearance means he could override it."

"Does he know Scarlett's there?" Merrik asked.

"I don't think so," Raiku shook his head. "His higher clearance means he could shut Scarlett down if he finds out about it though."

"He's been firewalling you this whole time," Merrik pointed out. "Haven't you figured out how to return the favor? Kayaba's got an avatar in game _somewhere_ , and Scarlett's no good if he notices what's going on."

"We'll working under the assumption that he _would_ stop Scarlett," Raiku pointed out. "I'm not sure he would. The problem if he will is that he's probably used his admin rights to make himself immortal, preventing his HP from running out."

"It would be helpful to identify him before Scarlett," Merrik pointed out. "Starting a coup to take over the clearer guilds will be hard enough without dealing with an immortal Kayaba."

Scarlett had several parts to it, but it's goal was very simple. Lyra had asked Raiku to create it in order to take control of the clearer guilds, and Aincrad itself, should such a need arise. The first thing it did was shut down all Anti-Criminal Code Effect Areas, the safe zones, making it possible to kill a green player even if they were in a town. At the same time, it disabled all teleport crystals, preventing targets from fleeing. The last thing it did was prevent the cursors of any players who killed a green player from turning orange.

The plan itself was simple. If the Clearer Guilds continued to refuse help then the Red Hunters would take control by force, killing the current leaders and any other members that refused to surrender. Then, once they had control of the guilds, they would not only be able to launch the crusade against the Laughing Coffin but centralize the command of the guilds. That would make them more effective at clearing floors. It was a win-win situation.

"I think I figured out how to link our username's to Scarlett," Raiku added thoughtfully. "If I can do it then the safe zones for our guild will still be active. We can kill other players but can't be killed ourselves."

Lyra smiled with an impressed look in her eyes.

"I've also got control of six of the ten Unique Skills," Raiku continued. "Four of the ten have already been given to players, but I have the other six in holding. With Jan in stasis, there are now six Red Hunters. Do you want me to give our guild the skills?"

"Not yet," Lyra shook her head. "Alto and Xavian are still new. We don't know if we can trust them with Scarlett. They may turn against us."

"I thought only two of the Unique Skills had been claimed," Merrik interrupted. "Who got the other two?"

"Kirito has Dual Blades and Heathcliff has Holy Sword as we already know," Raiku explained. "However, PoH has been given Darkness Blade and Nevermore, his second in command, has Shurikenjutsu."

"Two reds have unique skills?" Merrik clapped a hand over his face, "great, that makes our job even more interesting."

"Which is why Scarlett is more necessary then before," Lyra told him thoughtfully. "Raiku, can you strip those four of their Unique Skills?"

"I wish," Raiku muttered and then asked in an imploring tone. "Are we going to use Scarlett? I thought it was supposed to be a last resort."

Lyra nodded at Merrik to go on ahead and then turned to Raiku. She didn't look annoyed by Raiku's hesitance to follow her orders.

"We're starting to get to last resort territory," Lyra reminded him. "We need to stop the red players and their murder of innocents so we can focus our attention to winning SAO."

"That's what I mean though," Raiku shifted on his feet. "Even if everything goes perfectly with Scarlett, a lot of green players are still going to get killed. We're going to kill them. Won't that make us like the reds?"

"No," Lyra corrected him as Merrik walked out the door. "We don't want to kill greens and we will honor their surrender. They are innocents and we'll need their help to win SAO, now more than ever now that our Sword Styles are locked on floor 50 and above. We're fighting for our freedom and for Jan's, for our lives and for the lives of the thousands of players still trapped in Aincrad. We can't let anything get in the way of that."

Raiku hesitated for a long second before nodding agreement, his bangs falling across his eyes.

"All right Commander," he whispered to Lyra. "I'll keep perfecting Scarlett, but promise me you won't use it until you must. We won't be killing killers with that, but innocents."

"I promise Raiku," Lyra assured him. "Just remember we may need Scarlett to take control of Aincrad if we want to win without more casualties. The friction between the Betas and the non-Betas is foolish enough, and the guilds are too busy infighting for glory to pay real attention to winning. Aincrad needs a centralized authority to win and we Red Hunters understand what needs to be done the best."

Raiku nodded, glad Lyra had promised that. Lyra smiled and ruffled Raiku's hair as if he was her little brother.

* * *

Alto walked briskly along one of the streets of Panareze, heading to the main plaza to greet Aden and Xavian. A player wearing a brown cloak with the hood up walked by Alto in the direction of the Red Hunter's base, and Alto hesitated. She turned to face him as he left, thinking that she had seen something familiar about him. The player kept walking, bearing a green cursor, so Alto shook it off and resumed her course.

Cassim smiled to himself as the Red Hunter walked away. Normally, a player with an orange cursor didn't have the luxury of a safe zone as their HP would still drop. If they tried to enter the safe zone of a _town_ , they would be attacked by a number of powerful NPC guards. This, in theory, made it impossible for a player killer to sneak into a town.

Sword Art Online was not a game that was meant to be operated 24/7 for almost two years straight. Like any game, it was supposed to be shut down for mandatory maintenance every now and then. Since it was no longer able to, glitches had a tendency to appear. The vast majority of safeguards had been shut down in SAO when Kayaba had made death real, so most of the glitches made the Death Game deadlier. His cloak fooled the town's NPC guards. Should he be injured then his HP would drop, but for all appearances, he was just another player.

Cassim paused and watched curiously as two other Red Hunters left their base. They must have detected the death of their guildmate and gone to investigate. That was perfect, exactly what Cassim had been hoping for.

He sank into the shadows when he saw Lyra walking by, holding his breath and hoping she would pass.

He exhaled in relief when she passed him by and then continued to the Red Hunter's island where he was sure his little brother was. Of all the players, Lyra scared him the most. She, not PoH, always struck Cassim as the most coldblooded player in the game.

He shivered, glad Lyra hadn't seen him.

* * *

 **And here is the proof that Kirito's fears are well placed. The subroutine _Scarlett_ , should it be implemented, will be as disastrous as Kayaba's _Death Game_. A lot of people will be killed during the Red Hunters take over and even more will die as she hunts down the red players. If it works, then all the players will be consolidated under a single guild, which will make things more effective in their quest to clear the game. **

**I don't know about Cassim's view of Lyra but she does have nerves of steel, recovering quickly from the shock of what happened to Jan. Remember, they don't know what happened. All they know is that something dropped his HP to zero. It's thanks to ( _Second Heart)_ that he wasn't killed, but they don't know about that yet or that Cassim has the item.**


	12. Locked File - Soulshard

Raiku, curled up on a chair, was scrolling through the lines of code of Kayaba's _Death Game_ subroutine that had made death real. He had read the code line-by-line several times already, searching for a weakness, a way to override it. Though his guild had searched, they had never found a GM unit for him to access, so this was all Raiku could do.

As per Lyra's orders, he had sent a message to several of the Clearer guilds, telling them about Jan's death and Lyra's request that they do something. All he could do now was wait. If they refused, then Scarlett would be activated. Lyra hadn't said as much, but Raiku knew that would happen. The thought depressed Raiku as he knew in his heart that if Scarlett was used a lot of green players would die. Unable to look at the cursed code he had made, he was looking through the _Death Game_. If he could log everyone out, then there would be no need to use Scarlett.

Raiku stopped scrolling when he came to a certain line of the coding. It dictated a file named Soulshard. Just as he had done several times before, Raiku tapped on the file, but the same thing happened. An error message appeared reading: _Locked File- Soulshard_.

"What the hell is Soulshard?" Raiku muttered to himself.

Maybe if he knew he could do something about _Death Game_. He had a feeling, a bad one, that the Soulshard file had something important to do with the subroutine. Nothing he tried could unlock the file. Irritated, he tapped on the file again and got the same error message.

A message box suddenly appeared over his administrator menu, making Raiku give a start in surprise. It read, "Stop badgering my code Reiji." Raiku's breath locked in his throat at the message. He stared at it, raised hand trembling and eyes huge.

The message had come in when he had his administrator menu open, which meant it couldn't have come from a player. It had to be someone with an administrator account. They had called him Reiji as well, Raiku's name in the real world. A normal administrator would have only known him as his username – Raiku. Then there was the word in the message.

" _My_ code?" Raiku repeated, voice cracking. "My code!"

His voice jumped an octave. The Death Game code was Kayaba Akihiko's code!

"Uncle," Raiku hissed as he stood, the hovering message not disappearing.

Raiku opened a reply to the message that said, "You're in the game Uncle."

"Of course," Kayaba's response came a few seconds later. "What fun is it to watch someone else play a game?"

Raiku tightened his hand into a fist, clenching his teeth. Fun? Thousands of people were dead and he and his guild members risked their lives hunting down fellow players that had become murderers while still others died to clear floors, and he called it fun? Unlike Aden, Raiku had never exactly gotten along with his foster uncle.

Raiku had always sensed that something was strange about Kayaba. It was easy to believe Kayaba had simply become obsessed with perfecting his game. SAO was the first VRMMO to exist, so that was understandable. His obsession had been too deep though, and there were pieces of the code Kayaba had not let Raiku read. If only Raiku had pushed the issue of reading the code, he might have been able to stop _Death Game_ from coming online.

Here was the proof Raiku needed that what he said was true. Kayaba _was_ in the game. His guild members had believed him, but Aden had denied it. He'd been unwilling to believe Kayaba would let them suffer when he was in the game himself. Now even his twin would have to admit that their uncle needed to be killed just as badly as PoH.

There was a chime as Kayaba sent a second message. "Are you the one that stole the unclaimed Unique Skills?"

Raiku bit his lip at that, taking that as proof that Kayaba's avatar was a Unique Skill user.

"Are you the one that locked down the Sword Styles early?" He shot a question of his own back.

There was a delay in Kayaba's response, probably because Kayaba was laughing. Raiku had made it so that the overpowered Sword Styles would be locked inside a Floor Dungeon from Floor 75 and above. Instead, all Sword Styles had been sealed on Floor 50 and above whether the users were in a dungeon or not.

"Consider it a game balancer," was Kayaba's response.

"Game balancer," Raiku repeated with a low growl.

A game balancer was something a game administrator did when a new feature, such as a dungeon, was added to a game. If the dungeon was too hard, then a game balance would be initiated and the dungeon would be made easier so the players would have a chance to beat it. It could also be initiated if a new feature given to the players made defeating monsters so easy it wasn't worth playing anymore.

The Sword Styles would have made it easy for the players to clear floors, at least until Floor 75, with minimum casualties. Kayaba was going to make them pay in blood for every level they took from this point on. A sudden strike of fear shot through Raiku when he realized that Kayaba might have rebalanced the game to make it more of a challenge in other ways. Starting at Floor 85, the Boss Rooms of the Floor Dungeons were anti-crystal zones, meaning that players inside could not use healing crystals to recover from damage or teleport out. Had he changed the level that began as well?

Raiku knew that Kayaba would never answer him directly about that and possibly give him an advantage. The only thing he could do was use his GM rank to try to find out information himself. He couldn't resist one question.

"What is Locked File – Soulshard?"

Kayaba's response was surprisingly quick.

All he said was, "a game balancer."

The message's simple statement haunted Raiku and Kayaba cut off the chat. Raiku jumped when the messages shut down and quickly tried to get them back. He needed to archive it and show Aden the proof that Kayaba was a SAO player. Using his GM access, he was able to retrieve the messages Kayaba had closed but what popped up was nothing more than empty boxes.

"What?" Raiku exclaimed as he quickly flicked between the features of his GM menu and the message boxes.

He could not make the text come back. His uncle was smart. Instead of trying to delete the conversation from SAO, which would be hard to do, he had simply erased the text. It would have taken time to delete the conversation and that might be time enough for Raiku to save a copy. Deleting only the text had been near instantaneous. All Raiku had was the boxes the text had been in. He didn't even have the name of Kayaba's avatar.

"Damn it!" Raiku swore loudly and stomped a foot, dismissing his GM menu with a slash of his hand. "Damn it! He beat me!"

Raiku wished that someone else had been here to see the conversation. Other than the red player, Kobi, Raiku was the only one in the building. There were no witnesses to his chat with Kayaba, and he knew it was Kayaba. Raiku hung his head, his electric blue hair falling over his face. He couldn't do anything right.

"Game balancer," he whispered.

Given that Kayaba's last game balance had sealed the Sword Styles prematurely, he didn't like the sound of Soulshard. The question was, had Soulshard already been activated? Was it locked because it was already active and Kayaba didn't want him to shut it down, or locked because he was holding it in reserve and wanted to make sure it was there when he was ready to activate it?

Raiku shook his head as he opened his player menu, intending to warn Lyra about the conversation. Someone knocked on the door before he could touch her name in his menu and he hesitated. The knock sounded again and Raiku looked at the door in confusion. Someone was knocking? A Red Hunter wouldn't need to knock to gain entry.

"Ah," Raiku said as he realized who it probably was and closed his menu.

It was most likely a green from the town who had come to ask why they were holding a red player and why he hadn't been executed already. Raiku shook his head and walked over to the door, opening it. The door swung inward, revealing a single player in a brown cloak.

"Hello," Raiku greeted him, trying not to appear annoyed with moderate success.

"You have a red player," the visitor said.

It was not a question, but Raiku nodded anyway. "Yes we do. I'm afraid Lyra and the rest of my guild aren't here. You'll have to wait until she returns if you want to know when we're going to execute him."

"Execute him?" The visitor repeated.

"Yes," Raiku said slowly, a little puzzled by the visitor's surprise at the statement. "We believe we have taken all relevant information from him. It should be soon." He sighed. "I hope you're not here to whine that we shouldn't kill him and want us to turn him over to the Black Iron Prison. I know he's human but he's a killer. An example needs to be made. We can't give these reds any ground."

"He's not a killer," the visitor snapped, voice trembling.

Raiku raised one eyebrow at his vigor, unimpressed. "And how would you know?"

The visitor's arm moved and Raiku's experience saved him. He jumped backwards as the visitor's weapon sliced through the air an inch in front of his nose. Raiku was stupefied by the attack, unable to believe that someone would challenge him while he was in a Safe Zone. He reached to his side, only to remember that he had unequipped the rapier because he was in a Safe Zone and hadn't thought he would need it.

The visitor swung again, allowing Raiku to see that the weapon was mounted on the left forearm and it looked vaguely like Wolverine's claws from _X-Men_. He was fast, and the claws trailed golden light as they powered for a Sword Skill. Raiku had never seen a weapon like that, but wasn't worried. After all, he was in a Safe Zone. His HP _couldn't_ go down.

Raiku expected the visitor's claws to crash into a barrier the Safe Zone would automatically raise to protect his HP. Instead, the claws delivered two strikes to Raiku's chest, the first a swing to the left and the second a swing to the right. Red pixels flew through the air as a chunk of Raiku's HP vanished and Raiku toppled over a coffee table and onto the ground.

He was stunned, and glanced over his shoulder. His attacker jumped over the coffee table, holding the claws in preparation to plunge them into Raiku's back. He rolled over and the claws instead cut into the wooden floor. Raiku kicked the side of his attacker's knee, making it buckle as he came to his feet and punched the intruder soundly, shoving him backwards.

Raiku tried to swipe his hand down so he could open his menu and equip his rapier, but the player slashed him across the face. Through red pixels Raiku saw that the hood of his assailant had been knocked down. The player's hair was emerald and ruby, and his green cursor had turned orange.

"My brother's not a killer," the red told Raiku, "but I am."

Raiku ducked beneath the red's arm and rolled, coming to his feet beside him. He delivered a roundhouse kick to his side, making him stumble forward. Again, Raiku opened his menu, trying to get to his inventory and the rapier stashed inside. He had to jerk backwards to avoid having his right arm amputated, the menu auto-closing as he did so.

Raiku bit the inside of his lip, cursing to himself. Unlike the rest of his guild, he usually was not on the front line. Instead, he was a step behind the others providing support. Due to this, his level was a little lower than his guildmates', as was his experience in melee sorties. He was sure he'd seen this red before, but where?

"You like my claws?" The red asked, showing off the clawed weapon. "It's leftover from when I played the Beta Version. You can't explain my surprise after the Beta Test when I made a new account and found my main weapon still in my inventory, not at all deleted like the rest of my avatar was."

Raiku sidestepped around a swing, but found his feet swept out from under him when the red kicked him. He landed hard on his back. Had he been real instead of a virtual avatar the breath would have been knocked out of him. For some reason that jolted his memory. The red, Cassim, grabbed Raiku by the front of the shirt with his right hand and lifted him off the ground. Cassim leveled the claws on his left arm in front of Raiku's face.

"Now," Cassim told him, "where is my brother, hunter? Or I'm going to use Soulshard here to pixelate you just like I did that other Hunter."

"D-did you just say Soulshard?" Raiku asked, his precarious position forgotten.

"Yeah," Cassim said slowly, dragging out the single syllable. "That's the name of my claws. They were one of a kind in the Beta Test and they aren't even in the main game."

That was what Soulshard was. Soulshard could do the one thing every rule in the game said was impossible – kill a green player in a safe zone. Over half of all players were hiding within the safe zone of the Town of Beginning, terrified of dying. High level players like Clearers and Raiku's guild rested in safe zones within towns, often unequipping their weapons so they wouldn't have to lug them around as there was no need for them. Players in dungeons, like Clearers on their way to fight a Floor Boss, would rest in safe zones as they marched through the Floor Dungeon. None of them were safe anymore. Soulshard nullified safe zones. It really was a game balancer, just as his uncle had warned.

Raiku was suddenly flying through the air as Cassim chucked him at the front doors. They crashed open when he hit them and he tumbled on the grass.

The players' last and only true line of defense was worthless. Despite what Cassim said, there could be more than one Soulshard. What if there were more? No one would be safe anymore. Did Kayaba even intend for this game to be beaten, or did he just want to see how long it was until all the players died?

Raiku opened his menu and equipped his rapier, Cassim having not chased him outside. It was also possible Cassim had the only Soulshard. If that was the case, he needed to be killed and the weapon eliminated. He ran back inside the headquarters as Cassim ran down the stairs, dragging Kobi, the red player they had captured earlier, behind him. Kobi knew Raiku had an administrator menu. Both of them needed to die.

Raiku held the rapier in front of him and Cassim slid to a stop, raising Soulshard. He nudged Kobi behind him, taking a step forward to meet Raiku. For a red, he was brave. Raiku could understand his bravery. Cassim was protecting his brother, just as Raiku and Aden protected each other. It was too bad they were both reds. No red deserved to live. He agreed with Lyra on that point.

"Surrender," Raiku ordered Cassim.

"Or what?" Cassim sneered, the claws of Soulshard beginning to glow blue.

Raiku fell into stance, the blade of his rapier charging red. "I kill both of you instead of just killing you."

"No one is hurting my brother," Cassim promised, "not again. I'm not scared of that bastard PoH I'm sure as heck not scared of you."

"What about me?" A voice asked behind Raiku.

Cassim blanched, terror flicking across his eyes.

Raiku smiled, not needing to turn to recognize the voice. "You got my message."

"Yes," Lyra agreed as she walked forward, saber in hand. "Luckily for you I was already on my way back. So reds, what will it be?"

Raiku fell into a Sword Style with Lyra and both of their blades began to glow lavender. Cassim took half a step back as he looked between the two Red Hunters, the odds no longer in his favor. His sword's glow powered down as he broke the stance and stopped the sword skill.

"Oniisan," Kobi whispered, his voice quiet and trembling.

Cassim did not take another step back. He took a breath and then fell back into a fighting stance. The reason he had come was to rescue Kobi and rescue him he would do.

"How touching," Lyra laughed, her voice dripping with scorn as she looked over the two reds. "The murderer has a sense of honor. If only you cared about the lives of people as much as you do your family. Raiku, kill Kobi. I'll handle his ' _oniisan_.'"

Kobi, still unarmed, took a step back and bumped into a wall. Skye sat perched on his shoulders, feathers fluffed defensively. Raiku nodded without hesitation, walking a few steps away from Lyra. Cassim's attention was split between the two of them. He bit his lower lip, still not backing down. He wished he could one of the teleportation crystals he had, at least to get Kobi out of danger, but it hadn't worked when he'd tried to engage it upstairs. Somehow, the Red Hunters had erected an anti-crystal zone around their headquarters. If he wanted to teleport, he had to get beyond their territory.

Raiku made the first move, trying to go around Cassim to reach Kobi. Cassim ran forward to cut him off, only for Lyra to get in his way and parry his claws to one side, planting a sidekick on his sternum and knocking him into the kitchen counter. Kobi screamed.

Cassim glanced in Kobi's direction as he scrambled to his feet and put the island in the middle of the kitchen between himself and Lyra. Kobi had vanished up the steps with the other Red Hunter in pursuit. Why were they trying to kill him? He was a kid and he wasn't even armed!

"If you don't want to get killed," Lyra said as if reading his mind, "don't kill people."

She leaped on top of the counter, saber singing as the Sword Skill was unleashed.

* * *

 **Geez, talk about a delay between chapters. Well don't worry, I'm not going to abandon a story. Who scares you more, Lyra, the red hunter killing because she says it is the right thing to do, or Cassim, the red player who kills because it's fun? What do you think about Scarlett?**

 **Before you ask, this is not an AU. It does follow the timeline of the original Sword Art Online. I think this is a more exciting way of telling what happens in Aincrad instead of having Asuna and Kirito get all lovey-dovey.**


	13. Rout

There was chaos within the Red Hunter's headquarters as Lyra fought Cassim, the fight having moved into the living room. Their sword skills clashed as both sought to kill the other, a flurry of colors and blows. Lyra moved quickly enough on some of her blows that the sound and light effects of the strike were delayed, unable to keep up with her.

Perhaps it was the adrenaline of desperation, but Cassim was managing to stay alive, even though he was forced onto the defense. He was forced to maintain a perfect defense to keep Lyra's saber from connecting, and no one could maintain perfection forever. Lyra seemed aware of that fact and was content to continue until an opening appeared.

"Why don't you run?" Lyra asked Cassim as she struck left, then right, then knee-high.

Cassim batted aside her blows that he could not dodge, constantly moving. There was no way he could leave Kobi, and in order to do that, it looked like he'd have to cut through Lyra. It seemed he would have to make history by defeating the leader of the Red Hunters.

* * *

Kobi fled up the stairs, knowing running was futile but having no idea what to do. He knew he was dead as soon as Raiku caught up to him. Skye dug his small talons into Kobi's shoulder as he ran down a hallway on the second floor, trying not to be thrown off. Maybe he could find a weapon. This had to be the bedrooms for the Red Hunters. Surely, one of them would have a weapon lying around.

He tried to turn the knob of the door to the right but it refused to budge, locked. Kobi took a step back and kicked the door in an attempt to break it down. No damage was inflicted and a purple notice appeared, warning him it was an immortal object. Breaking down a door in virtual reality obviously wasn't going to work.

He heard Raiku come up the stairs behind him and ran across the hall to try another door in vain. Either the doors were locked or set so only Red Hunters could access them.

There was a flash of blue hair and then Raiku was standing at the top of the stairs. Kobi, about to try another door, stopped and took a step back. Raiku raised his rapier and Kobi swallowed. The Red Hunter paused, as if waiting for Kobi to cry out or beg for his life. Kobi refused to give him the satisfaction, and a ghost of a smile touched Raiku's lips as if in respect for Kobi's silence.

Skye stood on Kobi's shoulder and opened his wing, a flash of white erupting from the feathers. Kobi's vision was momentarily blinded, but Raiku cried out and shut his eyes, turning away. Skye was helping him!

Kobi ran at Raiku and shoved him into the door as he made it past him. He felt the blow and saw his HP bar decrease as Raiku blindly swung his rapier and connected but he paid it no heed. There was no pain in this world. He took the steps three at a time as he leaped down, knees buckling when he reached the first floor. The first thing he saw was his brother lying crumpled on the floor, red pixels layering the floor around him like bloody smears.

Lyra faltered when she saw him, having expected her Hunter. Skye opened his wings again as Kobi ran to Cassim, Lyra moving to intercept him. The flash of white light erupted from his feathers once more, and Lyra faltered as her sight was cut off. Kobi reached Cassim, too wired to feel relief as he helped him stand.

The light faded and Lyra was left standing in place, the back of her hand over her eyes as she grimaced. The Reds quickly walked around her towards the door, Kobi supporting Cassim.

Where were they? Lyra couldn't see a thing. Damn, she'd never guessed Skye would accept Kobi as his new partner now that Jan wasn't present. The tamed-beast must have thought Jan really had died.

Cassim, his HP near red, bumped into the coffee table as they headed to the door and Lyra's head snapped in that direction, saber raised as she leaped. Realizing she was going to connect, Cassim shoved Kobi forward and deflected her saber with Soulshard as he ran for the doorway. Lyra paused, and Kobi's boot thudded on the doorway as he ran to the porch. Smiling, she deftly dodged the furniture as she pursued them.

Cassim pitched forward as her saber tore across the column of the porch's black iron railing where his head had been, the sound echoing strangely. A warning came up that it was an immortal object, though no one paid it any heed.

Kobi tripped on the edge of a flagstone in the yard, foot scuffing, and Lyra's head tilted in that direction before launching. Cassim blocked again, wondering how the hell she was tracking them blind. The front yard of the Red Hunter's island was covered in grass with two large red maple trees on either side of the porch, shading the lawn. A path of flagstones, one of which Kobi had tripped on, led from the bridge that connected the island to Panareze to their porch.

Lyra blocked his blow, letting it slide off her sword so she could kick Cassim in the chest and send him stumbling back. The wind hissed as it ran over the metal of Cassim's claws, and Lyra hopped back as they passed within an inch of her nose. Eyes still closed, she tried to dive under his guard but Cassim backpedaled and ducked behind a tree. Panic made his breathing ragged and loud. How was she _doing this_?

"Floor 16 Coral Forest!" Kobi shouted, holding the teleport crystal.

Still nothing happened. Their whole island had an anti-crystal zone! There was a flash and Cassim looked up to see Lyra's boot an instant before it connected with his face. He was thrown backwards and tumbled through the grass. Lyra landed on the ground, smiling. She yanked the saber, which she had stabbed into the tree trunk to serve as a counterbalance for her swing, free. Cautiously, eyes watering, she blinked a few times and half-opened her eyes, glad the trees were filtering the sunlight. Her vision was blurred and she had no peripheral, but she could vaguely see what was in front of her.

Kobi froze near the mouth of the bridge, the useless crystal clutched in his hand as he stared at his brother. Shaking her head, Lyra closed her eyes again and held her curved sword behind her. It turned gold as it charged.

Cassim's HP had dropped into the red. What should he do?

Raiku crashed into the doorframe as he, blinded, tried to run outside and he stumbled, nearly falling down the stairs as he reeled from the crash. Shaking his head, he covered his face and eyes as he tried to see though his damaged field of vision. Three steps and he was down the stairs onto the yard, rapier charging a light pink.

Cassim looked up as Raiku thrust his rapier into the sky. A trail of pink-red light flew overhead into the sky where it exploded as a giant firework. He grimaced, betting the signal could be seen from Panareze where the rest of their Guild was. They had to get out of here.

Lyra unleashed her sword skill first, covering the meters between herself and Cassim in a fraction of a second, slashing from the bottom-right to top-left. Cassim frantically put Soulshard between him and her. The blade razed across its surface but still tore across his chest and throat, nearly taking his head off. His claws rang from the impact as he tried to take advantage of the Post-Motion Pause that accompanied a Sword Skill, but the pause wore off and Lyra stepped to the side, swiping his foot out from under him.

How could she… Cassim thought as he fell to the ground. Blind…

He saw her grimace and blink rapidly as she tried to open her eyes again. Though they still watered, she succeeded in keeping them open this time and smiled as she looked down at him. Her magenta eyes flashed as she turned the smile to him.

His HP was under 5%. She hadn't even needed her eyes to beat him, and now that she had her sight, he knew he was done. It was no wonder PoH feared her. He hadn't just been beaten, he'd be routed, and now the other Hunter was approaching, eyes squinting as his vision came into focus.

Could he really not save his brother?

"Oneesan!" Kobi screamed as Lyra brought her saber down.

He paid no heed to the steps behind him as someone ran across the bridge, staring helplessly at his brother. A figure in white ran past him, long brown hair trailing behind like a banner.

Lyra's saber collided with a second sword, knocking it to one side so it stabbed into the ground beside Cassim's neck. Shocked, Lyra jerked her head up at the intruder that had saved the Red.

"Asuna!"

* * *

 **You understand how Lyra did that right? She knew the layout of the house and yard so she was able to move around without hitting anything. She'd seen how tall Cassim was, what his reach was, and so on, earlier so she knew where to aim and how far to lean back and so on already. Yes, she has a good memory. She hunts humans, not computer generated monsters after all and humans are the most dangerous prey.**


	14. Hostages

"Asuna!" Lyra called out in shock.

Her saber, having been deflected from Cassim by Asuna's rapier, was stabbed into the ground beside the Red's neck.

"What are you doing?" Lyra demanded.

"What are you doing?" Asuna shouted back. "You've beaten him. You don't have to kill him."

"Says you," Lyra retorted pulling her saber free and slashing with it.

Asuna deflected it with her rapier as she stepped back, stunned at the sneer in her voice. She knew she didn't have to block it with the safe zone in place but kept her rapier raised anyway. Cassim rolled and scrambled to his feet though gave a start when the tip of Lyra's saber found itself in front of his nose.

"Raiku," she called out.

Kobi shrieked and Cassim's eyes cut to his brother. Raiku had a hold of him now, his rapier tip on the side of Kobi's neck. Skye lay sprawled on the bridge, stunned from where Raiku must have struck him. Cassim took half a step forward but found the saber now under his chin. Asuna froze in place, unsure what to do.

"Idiot," Lyra sighed.

Asuna tensed when she realized the Hunter was speaking to _her_.

"You shouldn't hesitate," Lyra growled softly. "I have a hostage, but he's just a Red. He's killed and killed and killed. He's had to in order to make his cursor permanently orange. Idiot. It's no wonder the Reds were running the show before I brought my guild together."

"He's human," Asuna retorted.

"Then maybe he should act like a human instead of a murdering animal," Lyra dismissed out of hand.

"Disarm red," she addressed Cassim, tuning Asuna out entirely, "or we'll kill your brother."

Asuna's eyes widened at her casually she spoke the threat. She looked between the red Lyra had pinned to the younger one on the bridge. The older one's brother only looked twelve or thirteen. He was one of the youngest age tier trapped within Aincrad.

"You," Cassim snarled.

"Do it," Lyra repeated in a sharper tone.

Raiku's rapier altered its angle and came down. Kobi gasped as the rapier went through his upper chest, embedding far enough that it came out of his back. Red pixels laced the air around him.

"Stop it!" Cassim shouted.

Lyra's saber cut a line from Cassim's chin to his shoulder and the Red put his empty hand to his neck to stem the pixels as his HP went deeper into the red.

"Disarm," Lyra repeated.

Behind her, Raiku yanked his rapier free. Cassim clenched his teeth together in frustration, eyes on his brother, before slowly raising his hands in surrender.

"Hey," Asuna frowned, "you don't have to do it like this."

Lyra's saber cut through the air and Asuna jumped back a step.

"Stay out of this Knight," Lyra warned Asuna. "This is Hunter business."

Asuna disagreed. "He's just a child-"

"He's a Red," Lyra cut in flatly. "If you had stayed objectified the Reds wouldn't have taken control of Aincrad like they did. You're incapable of doing that so why don't you just stick to clearing levels. The sooner you beat the game the sooner we can all get out of here."

"You Betas are something else," Asuna muttered darkly. "Your arrogance knows no bounds."

"Arrogance?" Lyra bristled. "You call us arrogant? We are fighting to keep Aincrad safe while you beat the game and players are much harder to defeat then computer-generated bosses."

Asuna was fairly certain she'd just insulted her.

"Besides," Lyra continued before Asuna could say anything. "As Betas, we Hunters know what this game is supposed to be like. We spent a month immersed in it before _Death Game_ protocol was activated. To see such a wonderful world twisted into what it is now is harder for us then it is for the rest of you."

Asuna didn't let herself feel sympathy, recognizing another hint of arrogance. Lyra was getting carried away on the power of being Captain of the most famous guild in Aincrad.

Behind her, Asuna heard boots striking the wooden plank bridge and warily looked over her shoulder. Two Red Hunters had appeared and Asuna could see the remaining members of the guild not far behind them. She wasn't the only one to have seen Raiku's flare.

"Captain!" Merrik called as he drew near. When he saw the orange cursors he drew his sword.

Lyra glanced at Cassim and saw the Red hang his head. He'd recognized his defeat was at hand. He didn't look like he was thinking of ways to turn this around and escape anymore. Hands still raised above his head, he knelt and dropped to his knees, not raising his eyes.

"Brother," Kobi whispered.

Cassim gave no indication he had heard. Hesitantly, hearing the other Hunters approaching, Kobi shakily raised his hands above his head and fell to his knees, eyes on the ground. Skye regained his senses but remained sitting. Even he recognized the motion of surrender.

Merrik slowed to a halt a few feet from Kobi near Raiku's side, sword pointing to the ground. Alto stood behind him, holding her double-bladed spear in her hands instead of across her back.

"What's going on Captain?" Merrik asked.

"An attempted escape," Lyra stared at Asuna as she sheathed her saber, "no aftereffects."

Returning her stare, Asuna sheathed her rapier in a sharp motion. She couldn't believe how readily she'd used the boy as a hostage to make his brother behave. Would she really have killed that twelve year old if his brother hadn't surrendered? Asuna didn't _know_ , but couldn't shake the feeling Lyra would have.

"I see," Merrik replied slowly, glancing at Asuna curiously.

Behind him, Aden and Xavian caught up and also halted at the end of the bridge. Aden went to stand by Raiku's side, concerned for his twin.

"Twins," Lyra called out, getting their attention. "Secure the Reds. Xavian, help them. You still haven't disarmed. Transfer your weapons to Raiku."

Glaring at him, Cassim lowered his right hand long enough to swipe and activate his menu. He unequipped Soulshard and selected everything under the weapon category for the trade, then hit send. Without the weight of his claws, his left arm felt too light.

"Better," Lyra admitted.

Raiku motioned for Kobi to walk, which he did, and Cassim also closed his menu and stood. He allowed himself to be escorted inside, Raiku holding the small dragon in one arm. Alto and Merrik, having not received orders, remained in the front yard with Lyra and Asuna. At a nod from her, they bowed and entered the building, leaving the Hunter and Knight alone.

They respected her, Asuna noted, enough to follow her orders without hesitation. But there were some orders they should hesitate to carry out.

"Why are you here?" Lyra asked her once her guildmates closed the door. "Have the other guilds changed their mind about a crusade?"

Asuna watched her, having thought she had heard a fragile note in her voice. Hadn't she been friends with Jan since before Aincrad? His death couldn't be easy for her.

"No," Asuna told her. "It will cause too many casualties on both sides."

"There are already casualties on both sides," Lyra responded flatly. "Don't you know this problem won't go away by itself? If we can hit the Laughing Coffin, the first and largest PK guild, we can eliminate them and discourage the rest. If the reds are hiding from us they can't hunt players."

"Under normal circumstances-" Asuna began.

"These aren't normal circumstances," Lyra interrupted again. "Gods, _why_ can't you Clearers understand that?"

Lyra hesitated, remembering Raiku telling her of his conversation with Kobi. Kobi was right, she admitted to herself.

"This is our life until we can get out of here," Lyra told Asuna strongly. "If we don't do something, nothing will get done. Aincrad isn't too different from the real world. Like there, we only have one life. What matters is what we do with it. I intend to come out of this alive and save as many other lives as possible. The Crusade is a step in that direction."

One life, Asuna thought. Lyra was right. This was supposed to be a game and the fact was it had become real life. It was scary. No one wanted to think that they could die. She didn't need to say it so self-righteously though.

"The Knights of Blood don't want to do it," Asuna sighed, "and Heathcliff respects that. I just came by to see if you were alright. I know you and Jan were old friends."

"And you call me arrogant," Lyra glared. "You come to pretend to be my friend, sugar-coating the news that you're guild isn't brave enough to fight the Laughing Coffin. That you are willing to let more greens die because you are scared to combat a guild that specializes in hunting players."

"That's not it at all," Asuna disagreed.

"Then why won't you help my guild?" Lyra asked coldly. "I'd be willing to lead it myself but my guild simply doesn't have enough members to handle the Laughing Coffin's numbers. So I have to ask for outside help. You know what, forget it. I'm out of patience for you damn Clearers. Get off my island before I have you escorted off."

"But-"

"Now!" Lyra shouted.

Asuna hesitated and then turned and walked away without a word. She could argue with Lyra, but knew that wouldn't achieve anything. Lyra was grieving for the loss of her friend and Asuna could have worded her sentence better.

Once Asuna began to walk across the floating bridge back to Panareze, Lyra turned on her heel and stalked inside, slamming the door shut after herself. She dropped into one of the chairs in the entrance room and stared at a wall, bright blue eyes distant.

Merrik was sitting on the sofa nearby looking at his menu, but closed it when Lyra sat. There was no sign of Alto, Merrik having sent her to help the others with Cassim so he could speak to his captain alone.

"I think I understand why you didn't just finish Cassim off," Merrik said thoughtfully. "You wanted both him and Kobi as hostages because they can't do anything. If one brother intends to cause trouble, you can threaten the other to keep them in line. I just wonder why you bothered and didn't execute both of them. I suppose since Cassim's older he probably has more information on the Laughing Coffin, so he'd probably be worth the effort as long as we had Kobi to keep him in line."

"Let me think," Lyra said shortly, voice flat.

Merrik raised an eyebrow as he closed his mouth. He knew that tone. He stood and bowed to her before walking upstairs. Lyra stayed in that position for the better part of an hour, until Raiku came downstairs, Merrik trailing behind him. While Merrik remained by the base of the stairs, Raiku walked to stand near his captain.

"I've secured Cassim's menu," Raiku informed her. "He can't summon it anymore. Nor can the other PoH track his location."

"Good," Lyra said distantly. "I intend to speak to Heathcliff shortly."

Raiku was surprised to hear the name of the KnightsOfBlood captain. He remembered his conversation with his uncle Kayaba. He was in the game. There were only two non-Red players who had Unique Skills and Heathcliff was one of them. It would be like Kayaba to put himself in a position of high power, politically and physically. Should he tell Lyra his suspicion about Heathcliff?

"I want to see if I can convince him to enforce us," Lyra continued. "The KoB is the second most popular guild next to ours. If I can convince them to help the others should fall in line."

"What if you can't?" Raiku asked cautiously.

There was a moment's pause before Lyra asked. "Where are Alto and Xavian?"

"In their rooms," Merrik frowned, "they're thinking about things. I told them I'd stand a better chance of coaxing you to say something."

"Is Scarlett ready?" Lyra asked, almost before Merrik finished speaking.

Raiku swallowed, suddenly understanding her earlier question. Alto and Xavian didn't know about Scarlett and might not take it well should they learn of it. If activated, it would disable the safe zones inside the towns for everyone except the Red Hunters. The Red Hunters could kill the Clearers who refused to surrender to their leadership, but they could not be killed. It was meant to be a last resort to unite the various guilds under Lyra's leadership, as she knew how to handle Reds the best.

"Yes," Raiku said, the word sticking in his throat.

If it was activated a lot of greens would die, though once Aincrad was under control she could easily eliminate the Reds without interference, now possessing the combined resources and players of all Aincrad. Raiku wished she hadn't asked him to make it, though he was the only one who could, having both a knowledge in coding and administrator access as a Game Manage of Sword Art Online. He just wished he had high enough access to log everyone out.

Did she really intent to activate it if Heathcliff didn't agree?

"That's supposed to be a last resort," Raiku said softly.

"You didn't have to listen to Asuna's arrogance after you went inside," Lyra pointed out, a slight growl in her voice. "She said the KoB wouldn't help and then started to go on about how sorry she was Jan was dead, trying to divert my attention from their cowardice. I'm certain I could get other guilds to help, but the KoB has skill as well as popularity. If I created a Crusade from weaker guilds, most of them would probably be killed. I need KoB's help, one way or another."

"What about Alto and Xavian?" Merrik asked thoughtfully. "They might not take Scarlett well."

"We'll worry about that if we have to use it," Lyra dismissed. "Merrik, will you serve as my Vice-Captain until we either log out or get Jan back?"

"Of course," Merrik smiled.

"Raiku," Lyra continued. "Make sure Scarlett's ready in case I can't convince Heathcliff to help."

"Sure," Raiku said softly.

Lyra stood and walked into the kitchen to get something to eat, the conversation evidently over. Merrik went back upstairs, leaving Raiku sitting on the sofa. He clenched the fabric of his pants, eyes facing the floor. If Scarlett was activated, a lot of greens would die. The whole of Aincrad would become Lyra's hostages. Even if it was to bring peace, was it really okay?

* * *

 **I recently watched Babylon 5, an epic sci-fi series. In the series, Earth declares martial law. On the surface, everything was peaceful and the humans welcomed it - it cut crime down to nothing. But it was the peace of the gun. If Lyra activates Scarlett, she will be declaring martial law in Aincrad. How far is too far in the name of peace?**

 **Worse, what happens next depends on Heathcliff who (spoiler) is Kayaba, the guy who made the Death Game. Will he say no, which will cause Scarlett to activate? I'll give you a hint and tell you that he, monitoring the game and all, knows about Scarlett.**


End file.
